


Forever In Your Service

by Rohad



Category: Frozen (2013)
Genre: Elsanna - Freeform, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-05
Updated: 2015-02-05
Packaged: 2018-03-10 15:56:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 56,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3296168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rohad/pseuds/Rohad
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Life is made up of little moments. Some happy some sad. Past, present, future and every moment in between. A collection of one-shots from the universe of "In the service of the Queen"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The kinda sorta Sequel to "In the Service of the Queen"

A cool breeze tousled yellow brown and red colored leaves, or at least the handful that remained stubbornly attached to the trees. Bare branches click and clattered together among the rustling, the fading notes of an autumn symphony.

Winter was fast approaching the kingdom of Arendelle, no more than a few days at the most and snow would be pouring from the sky, already cloudy breaths were visible, such as the large billowing ones streaming from Anna's mouth.

She took a moment to catch her breath. Cold air burned her lungs as she gulped it down greedily. The hot sweat breaking out across her brow quickly turning cold.

Anna launched forward swinging at the straw dummy, hacking and slashing with all the might she could muster, the blade bit deep, but never as deeply as she needed it to. She stepped back panting, still unable to cut a chunk off in one sweep of her blade.

It was frustrating to say the least, absolutely infuriating at the most. She glared at the training dummy with a crudely painted face, bits missing here and there where the blade had bit.

It was mocking her, she could feel it. She screeched in frustration, running headlong toward it, sword raised high.

Thunk

The blade stuck deep into the compact straw, but did not cut through. Anna groaned loudly.

"Come on girl, give it your all! You're trying to hack off a limb, not cut his hair!" She looked up at the tall figure that was now blotting out the sun above her. Her shoulders slumped.

"Sorry papa…" She huffed. A large calloused hand roughly patted her head.

"Don't apologize, girl. Try again. If you can hack off an arm or a leg the fight is as good as over! If they get back up, well…" He chuckled "You'd best take his head on the next swing." Lucian grinned down at the redhead, crooked teeth on full display through his short black beard, green eyes peeking out between his shaggy mop of black curls. The 9 year old red head gave a grunt and nodded hefting the blade up again and with a squealing battle cry made another run at the straw dummy.

"A real beast I'm raisin." The knight chuckled to himself as he watched Anna swing at the dummy with reckless abandon, clearly frustrated with her inability to hack the dummy to pieces. The breeze picked up, ruffling the bear fur cloak that hung from his shoulders over his armor.

"Ey! Form, girl. Don't be forgetting your form!" He scolded when she degenerated into angry hacking. She nodded straightening back into stance, swinging. It didn't take long before she was staggering, leaning on the sword to hold herself up.

"Alright, I think that's enough for one day, girl, the sun will set soon. Let's go back to the trading post." He took the blade from her and slid it back into its sheath at his hip, turning and walking from the clearing they were in. Anna trotted along behind him.

He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She was looking at her palms and frowning.

"They sore?" She looked up at him surprised, hiding her hands behind her back.

"N-no" She grumbled. He smirked.

"Oh, Of course not. I was going to tell you if they did hurt, to soak 'em in cold water, but you're made of tougher stuff then that, eh?" He turned to look down at her, a dirty blue tunic a few sizes too large hung on her, emphasizing her small form but she puffed up, nodding vigorously.

"I thought as much." He nodded with a chuckle. "We should reach Arendelle castle by late afternoon tomorrow." He thought aloud, scratching where the scar across his cheek kept his beard from growing.

"Will I get to see the castle too?" She trotted up to walk beside him. He hummed thoughtfully.

"I suppose so...perhaps i could do you one better and you can come inside with me." She looked up at him hopefully.

"Really?" He gave a nod and she grinned broadly highlighting the gap in her smile where a tooth had come loose a few days prior. The corners of her mouth drooped. "Will Markus be there?" She asked curiously. Lucien frowned.

"I doubt it very much. I dunno where that boy is these days. Wherever he damn well pleases I'd wager." He grunted out the last bit.

Before anything more could be said they were now standing just outside a decent sized log building.

A sign hung over the front door.

'Wandering Oakens trading post.' A tiny sign hung below that one 'and Sauna'

Anna bound up the steps and into the warm building, a gust of chilled wind signaling her entrance. She didn't realize how cold she'd been until the warm air inside hit her, making her skin flush, Lucian stepped in behind her, closing the door on the cold late fall air.

"Yoo-hoo" She looked up and grinned at the large mustached man behind the counter. "All done with your training, eh?" She nodded, just tall enough to set her chin on the rough counter.

"I appreciate you letting us stay in the room, Oaken. This is the nearest rest stop between the northern Mountain range and Arendelle." Lucien set a bag dried salt meat on the counter before wandering back to the aisles, looking over the provisions for sale.

"You saved my life once, Lucian, the room is a minor thing." He glanced down at the redhead who was eyeing a jar or rock candy on the counter with vicious hunger. Teal eyes flicked up at him before going back to the jar.

He leaned down to the girls' level.

"You want some candy, ya?"

She perked up grinning.

"Ya!" He popped the lid off the jar and grabbed a couple of the clear crystal treats.

"No, Anna." Lucien called from somewhere in the store. "You don't need any candy. Go up to the room." She frowned, looking up sadly at the giant store owner. Oaken glanced in the direction of the bodiless voice.

"You heard your papa, Anna." He said, sliding the candies across the counter where they quickly disappeared inside the girls open maw. "Run along upstairs now." He winked and Anna smiled around her treat before running up the stairs past Lucian as he set a roll of rope on the counter.

Emerald eyes watched her go before sliding back to the mountain man behind the counter, a thick black brow quirked.

"Don't think I don't know what you just did." Oaken blinked innocently.

"I don't know what you mean…this all, ya?" He grunted an affirmative as he handed over a handful of gold coins 'Your usually back in town much earlier in the season than this, did something keep you in the north?" The Knight nodded leaning in across the counter.

"aye, i was following a lead for a quest I was sent on. Took a bit longer than I anticipated is all." He gathered up his things and headed for the stairs. "The girl and I will be gone by sunrise, I'll leave some coin on the counter." He threw over his shoulder.

"I've told you before you don't have to pay for the room, Lucian." The door shut. Oaken sighed.

Anna looked up from her place sprawled out on the bed when the knight walked in and deposited his things on the floor.

"Why are we going to the castle?" He glanced down at her curious face than smiled.

"I'll show you, but you have to keep it a secret, aye?" She bolted up into a sitting position nodding.

"I swear." She bounced around, gnawing her lip between her teeth.

Lucien chuckled as he shrugged off his cloak, tossing it on the redhead who squeaked in surprise in the warm fur flopped over her head.

"Papa!" She giggled pulling it off her head. He grinned and plopped onto the bed beside her. He pulled a bag off his belt and held it up for her to see.

"This, is what we're heading to the castle for." She blinked.

"A bag?" He flicked her forehead. She squeaked, holding a hand to the spot.

"No girl! What's in the bag." He pulled the tie loosening the opening and reaching inside, a few clinks and he was holding the bags contents out in front of her.

"A bracelet?" She asked disappointed by the trinket He held in front of her. It was metal, a dark silvery gray, with strange carvings all around the band. A large icy blue stone at its center winked at her in the light.

"Not just a bracelet, Anna. This little thing is called Skjule. It's a magical artifact." She blinked at him before looking back to the artifact in question. "Tomorrow I'll be presenting it to the King."

"What's he need it for?" She wondered. Lucien smirked.

"That..." He leaned forward "Is a secret." He grinned. Anna groaned, flopping back onto the bed. He always said that when he didn't feel like explaining things to her.

"Now get under the sheets and go to sleep. We leave at dawn." She grunted but said nothing as she climbed under the heavy woolen sheets till only the top of her copper head was visible.

A muffled 'night, papa' reached his ears he ruffled her hair. And blew out the bedside candle before going to slip skjule back into the bag. He paused.

The light had been extinguished, but still the gem seemed to shine and glitter. He dropped it unceremoniously back into the bag and tied it shut.

So long as it did what they claimed it did it mattered little to him. This was what the king wanted and as a knight his job was to serve his king.


	2. The Dragon Queen

Today was they day. Anna stood from her place at one of the tables in the library and slammed her book closed with a thud, holding it under her arm and leaving the room quickly.

Anna rushed down the hall, book in hand. She was finally ready to talk to Elsa about this. She'd been mulling the idea over in her head for nearly a week. Weighing the pros and cons(at Kai's urging) studying maps and reading everything available on the subject, which admittedly wasn't much. She hoped to change that.

She nodded to the servants she passed as she all but ran down the hall toward the queens study. The glanced curiously at her over their shoulders as she passed them. Seeing the royal Knight excited was a near daily occurrence around the castle the staff had grown used to over the past year and a half since Anna had taken up residence in the castle but this seemed to be something else entirely.

They glanced at each other and shrugged before going back to their chores. No doubt they'd hear about it later. They always did, if not from the knight then the prince or queen.

Elsa jumped near out of her chair when her study door swung open without preamble and Anna strutted into the room with a grin, closing the door behind her and walking up to the desk.

"Hey, Snowflake, do you have a few minutes?" Elsa took a staggering breath, hand pressed to her chest over her heart.

"Anna…" She breathed, taking another calming breath. "We've talked about this, you can get away with a lot around here, but please, knock. You're going kill me one day." She sighed.

Anna grinned sheepishly and leaned across the desk to place a tentative apologizing kiss on the queen's mouth.

"Sorry. So..?" Elsa motioned to the chair across from her. She plopped into the chair and set her book on the table.

"What is so important that you feel the need to send me to an early grave?" Elsa drawled, glancing at the book on her desk.

"Well I've been reading.."

"Congratulations." Elsa smirked. The knights lips pursed.

"Har har. That never gets old.." She deadpanned. The queen giggled but made a continue motion with her hand. "Anyway.." She grumbled. "I've been reading about this place in the Sanguine Sea called Uzyrf Isle, where supposedly huge populations of dragons live." Ann grinned excitedly. Elsa blinked

"Okay…I'm missing something…"

"Oh. Right." Anna grinned. "I want to go there, see if there are other ice dragons, or other kinds of dragons at all." She flipped open her book to a dog-eared page and turned it around for the queen to see. A map stared back at her. Obviously very old if the terminology was anything to go by.

"Go the-…Anna do you know where the Sanguine Sea is? It's half a world away, This island might not even still exist. This book is over a hundred years old!" She picked up the dusty old tome for emphasis.

"I know, but it DID exist once and was overflowing with dragons of all kinds. I want to take Frost there." Elsa was shaking her head. The Sanguine Sea was over a month's ship ride away. Even on Frost that would take nearly two weeks to reach.

"No, I'm sorry Anna but I can't let you go." Anna's mouth worked soundlessly trying to form words, her temper starting to rise.

"Whose asking your permission, I'm going anyway." She stood from the chair looking down at the queen. Elsa stood to look back down on the slightly shorter knight.

"Anna, I forbid it. The Sanguine sea is weeks away even on Frost, something could happen to you and I would never know it." Ice had slowly begun to creep out from under the queens feet as her temper and voice rose.

"I'm a knight, Elsa. I put my life in danger all the time, for the kingdom, for you! I can't let 'what if's' hold me back, I'm going." She nearly yelled at the queen. Ice creaked faster across the floor.

"If you go, don't come back!" She yelled. Anna reared back as if slapped the hurt evident on her face. Elsa looked just as surprised the words had left her lips. Copper brows furrowed and lips pulled back in a sneer.

"Then I won't!" She yelled back before turning and leaving the room, slamming the door behind her. The handful of servants that had been listening when the loud argument broke out scattered when glaring teal eyes turned on them, they had no desire to bring the redheads ire down upon themselves.

With a frustrated growl Anna stomped down the hall. Elsa always picked the worst time to be less than agreeable. This was important, this wasn't just for herself, this was for Frost, her loyal and loving companion.

She huffed through her nose as she stomped to the field by the stables where she'd set training dummies up for Olaf, however he had princely lessons today and as he was still using a wooden stick to practice his from so they were still in good condition. She walked into the stables and grabbed the Princes wooden sword.

Frost peeked up over his stall when she walked in. She stopped to open the gate and pet him before stalking back out to the field. Frost followed but stayed a distance behind, sensing his mistress's stormy mood.

He laid out in the grass and sun as she spent the remainder of the day beating out her frustrations on the straw dummies till they were unrecognizable piles of straw. She plopped down next to Frost as the sun was sinking below the horizon. The fury had mostly drained from her and now she was exhausted and feeling guilty about what she had said to Elsa in the heat of the moment.

She leaned against the cool blue hide of her companion and he rested his head across her legs. She smirked tiredly, running her fingers over his scaly blue head and the black horned ridges over his jade green eyes. His full grown body, all 30 feet of it curled around her protectively, tail twitching.

"You better appreciate what I do for you, you scaly beast, I had to fight something scarier than you." She mumbled affectionately as she petted his head. When it had become good and dark she stood up and dusted the dirt off her black and red tunic and led Frost back into his pen.

She didn't meet any servants on her way back to their bedroom, or anyone for that matter for which she was glad. She was trying to regain enough energy just to talk to Elsa, this was far from the first time they had fought, and it was sure to not be the last. They had developed a routine in over the year they had been together.

Whoever made it back to the room first would sit on the bed and wait for the other, so they could talk about it more rationally. They'd resolved to never go to bed angry, though that had occasionally led to someone not coming back to the room at all that night and the other staying up till dawn when they would resolve their conflict and usually spend the day in bed.

Anna was a bit worried though. They'd both gotten vicious rather fast. She sighed. This may be one of those fights where Elsa hid in her study the entire night, it wouldn't be the first time. She walked silently down the hall to the bedroom door. She stared at it for a moment before taking a breath and opening it.

She wasn't sure if she was relieved or not to see Elsa, sitting on the bed, fiddling with her hands. Blue eyes jolted up to look at her when she heard the door open. Anna peered at her wordlessly before she closed it silently behind her and the queen was on her feet and crossing the room, throwing herself into the knight's chest.

"I'm sorry, Anna" She mumbled into the redheads neck. She could feel the tears dotting her skin. "I didn't mean what I said." Anna squeezed the platinum blonde against her.

"Don't cry, Elsa. I know you didn't…I'm sorry too." After a few minutes the quiet sniffling died and the queen pulled back to look into the knights teal eyes.

"Anna, please reconsider this. Uzyrf isle is weeks trip from here even with Frost. So much could go wrong…and honestly…with you it usually does…" The knight rolled her eyes.

"I have to. For one we don't know anything about dragons here anymore. Anyone who hasn't seen Frost thinks there just stories." Elsa sighed but Anna's finger on her lips kept her from speaking.

"Hold on now. I have another reason. Do you remember last fall, when Frost got all mopey and depressed for no reason?" Elsa blinked but nodded. "Well on what little I've gathered from the library, dragons mate in the fall, all dragons. Don't you see Elsa? He was lonely and I was thinking maybe if I found another ice dragon we could breed them here, not a lot mind you, a handful."

The knight had obviously put a great deal of thought into this, so despite her initial misgivings Elsa listened quietly.

"We could put them to use in some way of course, so they won't be as lazy as my scaly beast, maybe as a military unit or something, but also he wouldn't be so lonely hopefully, cause from what I've learned ice dragons are really rare. I've even talked to the master of agriculture. Frost only eats 20 lbs of fish a day, even if we had 4 more dragons that only 100 lbs, give or take. Fishing being a major staple here we could easily sustain them." She ended, biting her bottom lip between her teeth, waiting for Elsa's opinion.

"Well, I'm glad you've at least thought it through for once." Anna ignored the urge to feel insulted. "Is it really necessary? Dragons have gone extinct here, who's to say they haven't on Uzyrf? If something happens to you…"

"Yes, it is necessary. Frost is my companion my friend. Your friend. He's saved both our lives Elsa." Blue and teal stared intently. "I am going…I'm just hoping you'll welcome me back when I return." The queen flinched and Anna regretted saying it, Elsa was already sorry for saying it and here she was throwing it back in her face. The queens grip on her tightened.

"You know I didn't mean that Anna…" She mumbled sadly. It stabbed at the knights heart.

"I know. Sorry, I'm sorry." She leaned her forehead against the blondes.

"When are you leaving?" She asked quietly, fingers twisting in the black fabric of her tunic on her back.

"In a couple days, I need to go get provisions together and go over some maps…"

"If any still exist." The blonde mumbled bitterly under her breath. The knight sighed heavily through her nose. It was going to be a long couple of days. Of that she was positive.

 

* * *

 

Frost wiggled impatiently as Anna placed her things in the saddle bags. She grinned at his obvious excitement. He and herself however were the only ones excited. Olaf looked positively morose and while she hid it well Anna knew the queen well enough to know she was feeling the same as the young Prince. She turned back to the royals and smiled.

"Well, I'm pretty much ready to go." She gave Frost a pat before walking up to the royal siblings.

Olaf jumped forward, wrapping his arms around her legs., burying his face into her thighs.

"Do you have to go, Anna?" He mumbled. She smiled, ruffling his white hair.

"Yeah, but don't worry Olaf. I'll be back before you know it, and I'll bring something interesting back for you." He nodded and pulled back to look up at her.

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you to." She smiled. He released her and stepped back. "Now you better go, the Captain is waiting for you. He'll be in charge of your training while I'm gone." She nudged him back toward the castle. He nodded before turning and running back to the castle.

Anna turned to Elsa who was looking at her sadly.

"I wish you wouldn't look at me like that…" She took a few steps, closing the distance between them and taking Elsa's hands in her own.

The queens brows furrowed.

"And I wish you weren't going, but obviously we all can't have what we want." She mumbled. The corner of Anna's mouth quirked. It was kind of adorable how pouty Elsa was being about all this and she told her as much.

The queen pinched the back of her left hand. Anna chuckled holding the now sore spot. "Sorry, sorry."

"It is not funny, Anna. If something happens to you out there…I'd never even know it. I'd spend the rest of my life wondering…" Her breath caught. "Please be careful." All the amusement Anna had felt quickly drained away. She grabbed the queens forearms pulling her in close.

"Hey, I'll be extra careful, just for you." She pushed a stray white-gold strand back behind the older woman's ear. "So try not to worry so much, Elsa." She cupped Elsa's cheek in her hand. The queen leaned into the touch, covering Anna's hand with her own.

"I have to, someone has to. With your luck you'll trip on your cape into an open fire…" Anna frowned.

"One time, that happened once and you never let me live it down." She stepped back flinging her hands in the air. Elsa grinned launching herself into the exasperated knights open arms and burying her face into the crook of her neck.

"Be safe and come home to us…to me." She mumbled against the knight's armor. Anna squeezed her tightly.

"Don't I always?" she asked before pulling back to kiss the blonde deeply. "I'll be back before you can miss me." She breathed across her lips before pulling away completely and climbing onto Frosts back and with a final wave was flying into the cloudless blue sky.

Elsa watched her go till she was only a speck on the horizon.

"I already do…"

 

* * *

 

It was a week and a half into the trip before Anna noticed the air becoming slightly warmer, not that she should have been surprised as they were heading due south. Still a few days off from their destination. Already they were in the middle of the Sanguine Sea. The red tinted water a dead giveaway.

Anna sat in the warm sand next to her bags, jotting notes about the journey down in a blank leather bound journal Elsa gave her as Frost splashed around in the water, catching his own meal as she chewed on a cured piece of meat. Everything was going well and on schedule for once. If the map was to be believed they were just a few days from Uzyrf Isle, maybe a bit less. Despite all the time Lucien had devoted to it she'd never really gotten the hang of ocean maps, at night she could find her way with the stars no problem, it was during the day she experienced the most trouble. She wrote as much in her journal.

She'd probably let Elsa read it when she got back. The blonde seemed to get a kick out of Anna's random musings so she tended to write them down in recent months. random thoughts she wanted to remember or just something she wanted to say to Elsa. Said queen found endless amusement in it, something about how excited the knight got with the novelty of reading and writing since she'd moderately mastered the skill.

She closed the journal and glanced up at the sound of crunching sand. Frost waddled out of the water and gave a shake, sending droplets of water in every direction. She hunkered over the journal to keep it dry.

"Hey, HEY! Cut it out ya damn blue beast." She laughed. He chirped in loud reply before plopping down beside her in the sand. This was the last island on the map before they reached Uzyrf. She'd let him rest the rest of the day and night and at sunrise they'd be off again. Hopefully she'd find what she was looking for.

She leaned against Frosts side and crossed her arms over her chest, letting her eyes slide shut, mumbling to her companion.

"Maybe we can find you a mate as good as mine eh?" The dragon gave a derisive snort. A teal eye slid open regarding him.

"As my better half I should feel insulted on her behalf, but considering all the grief she gave me about coming her I'll let the two of you ice battle it out later." She grumbled, eye sliding back closed as she began to drift off. Frost just grunted.

When she opened her eyes again the first tendrils of light were just beginning to peak out over the horizon. The sun hadn't even come up yet, but the faint light was beginning to reach up into the deep and starry hues or early morning. She sat up stiffly in her armor and yawned. Frost grunted sleepily from his place wrapped around her.

"Come on, Frost." She grumbled, blinking blearily as she stumbled to her feet and over his tail to stretch. He made a gurgling sound, rolling over onto his back, wings tucked in. Anna just rolled her eyes before flopping onto his exposed belly. He made a wheezing sound that made the knight giggle before sliding off onto the sand.

His long neck twisted around so bright, glowing green eyes were staring at her in what Anna could only assume to be an unamused expression. She just grinned and he snorted a cloud of cloud chilled air into her face.

She slapped his nose away with a snort.

"No time for your attitude this morning. We need to get going. Fall has technically already begun you know." He snorted but rolled over onto his clawed feet and stretched.

She hefted the saddle and its bags back over his scaly back and tightened the straps. When she was satisfied they weren't going anywhere she climbed on and gave the beast a pat.

"Aight, let's go." A light slap of the reins and they were off the ground and flying out over the water, looking out over the same sight she'd been starring at every day for 11 straight days. Endless expanses of water.

"I'm getting really tired of water." She grumbled. Frost chirped. Agreeing or not she couldn't tell.

After another day and a half of constant flying she could see a smudge on the horizon.

"Hey, there it is! Ha, I knew it would still be here. Wait till I tell Snowflake" She grinned triumphantly as they flew towards the shadowy spot in the distance.

It took a few hours to reach the distant landmass. Anna pulled the old map out from inside her breast plate and glanced it to the island and back again humming thoughtfully.

"Doesn't quite do it justice does it?" She thought aloud starring down at the heavily forested island stretching in all directions for at least 10 miles if she had to guess.

Most of the trees were still bright green but the forest was dotted with specks of autumn colors, reds and yellows standing out in stark relief from the surrounding foliage. A mountain rose up above the tree line, a cloud of smoke drifted lazily from its mouth.

"What do ya think?" She leaned over in the saddle to look at Frost. An emerald eye rolled back to look at her and a puff of chilled air streamed from his nostrils. Anna blinked.

"Were gonna work on your communication skills when we get home." She grumbled pulling down the reins and bringing them toward the ground.

50 feet from the tree line Frost halted and no amount of budging would move him. A deep foreboding growl vibrated his body.

"Hell is wrong with y-?" Her jaw snapped shut. She could hear…something. Something in the trees was rustling. "Frost…" She mumbled. Without preamble he lout out a rattling roar and the trees erupted in a plume of fluttering dark green. Anna shrieked as the cloud shot towards them, throwing her hands up to cover her face but after a beat and she was still alive she cautiously pried open her eyelids and her jaw came unhinged.

Chirping and squeaking as they flew past them, the cloud of green had morphed into a pack emerald green dragons no bigger than cats, whizzing by, giving Frost a wide berth. Anna's neck creaked when she whipped around to look behind her as the last few glided past her and disappearing in the island.

She blinked, watching them vanish.

"HA!" She started giggling madly. "I Wish Elsa was here just so I could say 'I told you so!'" She laughed as she tugged at Frosts reins, directing him back on their path to the ground. Now that the other predators nearby had gone he happily landed in a clearing.

Anna jumped off his back with a grin.

"Well what are we waiting for?" She took off into the foliage, Frost trailing behind.

 

* * *

 

Anna reclined in the vines beside the waterfall, watching Frost out of the corner of the eye as he swam around the pool at its base, keeping guard over what was hidden in the cave behind the rushing water. Her journal laid open in her lap, pen tapping her chin in thought.

Day 15 on Uzyrf Isle

"So I've kept track of the days but failed to write anything since arriving here, so I'll fill in the last fortnight now. The island if full of Dragons, all different kinds, fire dragons, water dragons, rock dragons(they eat rocks, it's weird to watch) and some that I'm just going to call forest dragons

The fire dragons are a rare sight, they live up on what I'm calling Mount Uzyrf as it's not mentioned on any of my maps, actually nothing but the island itself is shown on the maps. Mount Uzyrf is a volcano, I know because there was a…incident where I nearly fell into said Volcano. Once again I owe Frost my life. On that note: Fire dragons are not very friendly.

On occasion at night I see them fly overhead, spewing fire. There scales are such a bright red it's almost like they glow, some are more orange in color. I think it's an age thing, the duller the older. They all have bright gold eyes and black horns and claws. I avoid them for the most part. Frost doesn't enjoy their presence either so I've named them 'Hell Drakes'.

The water dragons seemed genuinely curious and less hostile then their fiery counterparts. There amazing to see. They range in all colors of blues and greens. They don't have wings, but fins(water dragons) and instead of scales they have skin, smooth and slippery, there claws are webbed and they eat fish too. I'm trying to decide if I should bring one of these back as well. Some kind of algae seems to grow on all the ones I've seen.

After the Volcano thing I decided to not push my luck and get in the water with them. I don't trust anything in its natural element around here. I've yet to come up with a good name for them.

The rock dragons don't seem to care about me either way, They ignore me actually, I'm kind of insulted. Snubbed by a big scaly best that eats rocks. On the one hand I can pet them and they don't even blink, I tried to ride one. It didn't like that. At all.

I think Frost was jealous, he wouldn't look at me the rest of the day after.

I managed a few good looks at their mouths, they don't have teeth like the other dragons. You know, big, white, pointy, scary.

There thick and blunt nubs. I guess to grind up the rocks they eat.

They range in color from mud brown to dark gray with dull orange eyes. There claws are thick and curved, I've watched them dig up the ground for rocks to eat. I can literally sit right next to them and they don't even look at me. It's actually infuriating.

They have thick plated rock like scales, like my armor and when they fight they ram into each other viciously. I've taken to calling them 'Bull Drakes'

After the first 5 days and no sight of another Ice dragon I was starting to think the trip had been a waste of time, BUT on day 6 while exploring the northern half of the island, as far from Mount Uzyrf as you can get and still be on the island I found a cave, which led to a large cave system running under the island. The tunnels were filled with ICE.

Oh and a lone female ice dragon! She was a little nervous and snappy at first, I called her Elsa (Kidding, I'm just kidding, Snowflake.) I called her Zuli.

I swear there 'courting' process took longer than mine and Elsa's. Maybe I'm just that irresistible.

It took 5 more days before…well…I'm not going to describe that, but yeah. You get it. Eggs were laid yesterday and Zuli left and she has yet to come back, I don't think she will either. Come morning I'm packing several out of the dozen into my bags and heading home.

I don't know how long they stay in the eggs but I'd like to get home before they hatch. I don't know what I'd do if they hatch over the middle of the ocean in my saddle bags. Hopefully I won't have to find out. I didn't think this bit through. On another not, the place is littered with claws and fangs. I've been collecting them, I'm going to turn them into necklaces and maybe a dagger when I get home.

 

* * *

 

The two weeks it took to return to Arendelle seemed to drag on forever. Every minute she spent starring out at the ocean seemed longer then the last. Especially with Frost constantly glancing back at the saddle bags where 3 icy blue colored eggs the size of her head sat swathed in Anna's extra tunics for warmth. She rolled her eyes. They weren't even technically born yet and already he was worrying like a mother hen.

She cheered aloud when they broke through the clouds to the sight of Arendelle castle.

"Home sweet home at last!" She howled. Frost let out a low grumble of agreement. It was early morning the sun just rising over the horizon. She had plenty of time to go and surprise Elsa before she had to attend to her duties.

They landed soundlessly in the field in front of the stables and Anna set to quick work scraping together a thick pile of straw in Frosts stall. She took each egg out of her bags and laid them in the pile. Frost watched anxiously over her shoulder shifting from foot to foot and chirping. The moment she finished and stepped back he was shoving past her and curling up around the little nest she'd made. She chuckled.

"Aight, you stay there with your babies. I'm gonna go see my mate." She grinned at him before leaving the stable. "I'll come check on you after a warm meal and a nap." She called over her shoulder, never certain he completely understood her, but she liked talking to him like he could.

Guards and servants greeted her enthusiastically. She smiled and returned their greetings as she made her way to her room where Elsa was no doubt just getting out of bed.

Soundlessly she opened the door and grinned. There she was, facing away from her on her side, sound asleep still no doubt. After nearly two months she was a sight for sore eyes.

Anna slipped in and closed it just as noiselessly behind her and crept up to the bed. She leaned over the bed, gently resting a hand on the other side of the sleeping body to hold herself up. She was half leaned down to press kiss to the blondes cheek when she froze.

A spike of ice pressed against the flesh of her throat and she suppressed the urge to swallow.

"I don't know how you got past the guards but -" blue eyes opened and turned to look up at her and she paused then gasped. The ice vanished and the queen jolted up, throwing her arms around the knights neck.

"ANNA!" She squeezed her mercilessly. Anna smiled shakily.

"He-hey Snowflake." She swallowed thickly as the fear that had began to boil up in her gut slowly ebbed away. Elsa pulled back, holding the knights face in her hands.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't realize it was you, I've been a little…nervous since you've been gone." The knight smiled more easily.

"Hey, you didn't kill me, so that's something." She laughed.

Elsa stared at her silently, running her thumbs over the knights cheek before jerking her in and capturing her lips in a long and bruising kiss, the accumulation of nearly two months' time apart.

When the queen released her she was slightly dazed and out of breath.

"M-missed you…too" She huffed with a lopsided grin. Sitting herself on the bed beside the blonde. Elsa smiled back.

"I'm glad you're finally home, I'm not used to sleeping alone anymore" She held the knight close. "Did you find anything?" She asked. Anna's grin turned wide.

"You're damn right I did! I found Uzyrf Isle and it was full of dragons!" She leapt up throwing out her arms. Twin white brows shot up and blue eyes widened

"Really?" She asked astonished. Anna nodded grabbing the queens hand and dragging her out of their bed.

"Get dressed come see. We found another ice dragon as well and well…just come see." Elsa reluctantly dressed and followed the knight out to the stables. Anna was reunited with the Crown Prince in the hall. She kept walking even as he attached himself to her leg and no amount of scolding from the embarrassed queen could get him to release the redhead.

Anna smirked. It was good to be home, especially after she'd spent the last 2 months in the wilderness with a mostly silent dragon for conversation.

Anna hurried to Frosts stall as fast as she could with the Prince hanging off her leg and Elsa following, shaking her head.

"Come see." Frost glanced up at them when they came in. Anna pried the prince from her shin and leaned down next to the pile of straw. Olaf dropped down next to her when she pulled back the tunic she'd left him and the queen both gasped when they saw the shiny blue eggs.

"Eggs!" the prince squealed scooting up next to the nest. Elsa scooted in to kneel next to her brother in just as much awe.

"Ice dragon eggs." Anna clarified with a grin. Olaf looked up at her with wide baby blue eyes.

"When they hatch will you teach me how to ride?" He asked hopefully. She smiled.

'Of course.." She caught sight of Elsa frowning an shaking her head. Anna resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "…When your older though." The prince frowned.

"Why is everything 'when you're older'?" He pouted. Elsa giggled, holding a hand to her mouth and the Knight grinned.

"Don't worry Olaf. Someday you'll look back and wish you were a kid again." She reached out and ran a hand over the smooth cool surface of one of the eggs.

Crack

She wrenched her hand back and all eyes turned to the egg.

"You cracked it!" Olaf screeched.

"I didn't do anything!" held both hands up away from the nest.

'Hush, both of you. Look." Elsa scolded them both. The both turned back to find the crack spreading rapidly.

"It's hatching" The knight nearly shrieked jumping up. Elsa couldn't help but smile at the excited Knight. Things had been almost boring without the redhead the past 2 months, and even if she had dragged her out of bed to go to the stables and was nearly shrieking right next to her, she'd missed her.

Frost had jumped up when Anna had and was chirping wildly as excited as her by what was going on. He pressed his snout gently to the shell, sniffing curiously, another quiet crack and his head reared back claws and scales clicking and clacking as he moved about.

A piece of shell cracked upwards and a tiny blue snout poked out of the hole. Anna fell back to her knees , crawling closer to the egg. The tiny blue snout pressed out again, trying to push away the piece of shell.

The knight reached out slowly and pulled back the section revealing the small blue and scaly face of an ice dragon hatchling.

Olaf peered at it beside her, mesmerized and even Elsa cooed at the newborn.

Anna broke helped break apart the rest of the shell until it was free. A newborn ice dragon about the size of a full grown rabbit.

"He's so adorable." She grinned as Frost nuzzled the hatchling. "Before you know it they'll be as big as Frost." She turned to Elsa. The queen blinked. She'd momentarily forgotten that part.

"I decided they would be useful as a military force. Scouting, border patrol and such. As the head of the royal guard I'll let you pick the 3 men to award the honor of being your dragon riders." She smiled. Anna nodded.

"Not just the queen of ice and Snow but the Queen of Dragons now to?" The knight asked with a laugh.

Again they heard the sound of cracking and Olaf squealed.

"Anna, the rest are hatching!" She glanced back to where the prince was leaned over the other two cracking eggs.

"Not me, Anna. It's you who's the Dragon Queen" She smirked before turning and leaving the stables.

 

* * *

 

It wasn't until that evening she saw the Knight again. Anna barged into her study as her usual with a grin.

"Good evening, Snowflake." She greeted plopping into the chair on the other side of the desk from the queen. Elsa glanced up from the leather bound journal she'd been reading. Anna saw it and smiled.

"I'm glad you didn't bring back any water dragons." Was all she said. Anna just smiled. "Is Olaf still in the stables?" She asked setting the journal on the desk. The knight shook her head.

"No, no reason to. I passed out the little flying rats to Henrick and Jarvis. They'll keep them with them in the barracks to bond until they grow to big." She explained.

"What about the third one?" a white brow rose up in question.

"Oh…the third one? Umm..i might have given it to.." She mumbled the last part. Elsa frowned.

"Who?" She pressed. Anna sighed.

"I gave the last one to Olaf to raise."

Elsa sighed, resting her forehead in her palm.

"Anna…" she mumbled.

"Let me explain. You remember how fast Frost grew, and I told Olaf I'd give him one. Well he has to bond with it now, it'll be good and attached to him by the time he's old enough that you'll let him do things.." She mumbled the last part. The queen gave her a glare. "Oh come on, he already named it. It's Tulvir by the way." Elsa sighed.

"Fine, but in a week when it becomes the size of a horse it goes to the stables with Frost." Her tone brooked for no argument. Anna smiled nodding.

Elsa picked up the journal and held it up for Anna to see.

"Now…about you nearly falling into a volcano…"


	3. A gift for you

She'd been toying with this idea for more than a few weeks, weighing the pros and cons of all the things she would have to do, there wasn't even a guarantee of success, and if she failed she would be empty handed in more ways than one.

She was going to need help, that much she knew, in normal circumstances Anna would be her first choice, but that just wasn't an option for this nor any of the guards. She needed someone she knew she could trust but lived outside the castle. She spent hours thinking about the perfect person to ask when it hit her like a sack of rocks.

She would have to contact him as quickly as possible. She was running out of time

When her first instinct had been to try and sneak out of the castle without being noticed she realized Anna had been rubbing off on her in a less then good way. She shook her head of the ridiculous idea. She was the Queen. She didn't have to sneak about….right now. This was a special case.

From the moment she pressed the royal seal into the melted wax and sent the letter off with a messenger and the time Kristoff arrived finely dressed in the red and gold of his family an hour and a half had barely passed.

"Your Majesty." He knelt down in front of her, seated on the throne. She smiled and bid him to rise.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice Lord Bjorgman." She greeted the burley blonde man. Kristoff smirked.

"I did not know Anna had already told you about passing the mantle on to me a fortnight ago." He scratched the back of his head with a lopsided grin and Elsa smirked.

"Oh yes. She came home telling anyone who would listen that was 'free at last'" She shook her head at the memory. "If you don't mind we can speak in my study." He nodded following her out of the throne room and down the hall in silence.

She closed the door behind them and gestured to the empty chair in front of her desk.

"Please have a seat, Kristoff." He plopped down in the chair as Elsa walked around the desk and sat in her own plush chair.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've asked you here so I get straight to it. I am in need of your assistance." He sat up straighter, shoulders squaring.

"I am at your disposal for anything you may need your majesty." He assured. Elsa smiled.

"I'm glad you feel that way. There really is no one else who can assist me with this, not that I feel I can trust." She told him.

Kristoff puffed a little. "So what is it you need from me, your majesty?" He queried.

"Just Elsa, Kristoff. Please." She smiled reassuringly when he looked uncertain. He nodded. "As I'm sure you know, Anna's birthday is coming up." He nodded.

It wasn't something that the blonde man normally kept track of but his mother had mentioned something to that effect just the day before. He only knew she was turning 22 by virtue that he had just turned 19 the month before and she was 3 years his senior.

Elsa leaned forward, steepling her fingers.

"There is something I want to get for her, but it's a little more complicated than going into town and buying it however. I'm not even sure if what I'm looking for even exists. I need you to be my escort for this endeavor." She explained.

Kristoff stared owlishly at her, mouth ajar. He blinked and seemed to come back out of it.

"That sounds…dangerous…What is it you're looking for exactly?" His thick blonde brows rose in question.

"A stone called spring quartz. It's said to only be found near the North Mountains peak. According to legend it has special properties like warding off foul magic, but mostly it's celebrated for its power to speed up the bodies healing process, something that would come in quite handy for your sister who always seems to be chest deep in trouble."

Kristoff couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his throat.

"you'll have no argument on that from me." he smile fell and he sobered. "If I may be frank.."

She nodded for him to go on.

"You're right, this stone may not exist and even if it does, you seem quite sure it possess the abilities they say it does and to honestly that seems a little…" He trailed off unwilling to finish the thought.

"Naïve?" The queen supplied with a questioning tilt to her brow. The blondes cheeks pinked but he gave a slight nod.

"It's alright Kristoff, I would think so to, however I've had my share of dealings with magical gems before. Enough to know they can possess great powers." She picked up a bracelet off her desk the other blonde hadn't noticed till now.

It seemed quite old and worn, a dark gray metal with large icy blue colored stone centered in it. The smooth facets seemed to dance in the light.

"This is one such gem, and where one exists there is sure to be others." Kristoff found it hard to argue with the Queens logic.

"I want to keep this a secret; I don't want anyone to know where I'm going. I need you to be my guide. Anna said you're quite the accomplished mountain man." The pride he felt at the compliment from his sister and the queen was being dwarfed by the doubts beginning to grow.

"I am…but your majesty this could be dangerous, I'm sure I don't have to remind you that you're…" He waved vaguely at the tiara resting in her platinum locks. "The…majesty." Elsa covered her grin with her hand.

They looked so different it was easy to forget her Knight and the shaggy blonde haired man were related until they got excitable. They both had the same way with words, or lack thereof.

"Why don't you just send someone to get it? There's a legion of men willing to do anything you asked." He tried to reason. When she was able to keep a straight face she lowered her hand and nodded.

"That's true. However, I don't trust anyone enough with this. Such a thing, if it exists could be worth more than any man's loyalty. There is only one person I would trust to go alone for me, and I can't very well send her to search for her own present can I?" She smirked at the idea. "Besides, I want to do this for her."

"Anna is a knight, specifically YOUR knight and bodyguard. If and when she finds out you left the castle without her she's going to have a stroke, and when she finds out I was involved in smuggling you into danger she's going to skin me alive." He slowly dragged his hands down his face. Elsa waved a hand dismissively.

"Let me worry about Anna. Her worrying about me is inevitable, but I've come up with a plan to leave the castle without worrying her too much. It pains me to say it, but luckily Anna had a small accident a couple days ago, Olaf's pet ice dragon, Tulvir wanted to play with his father while Anna was riding him." She rubbed her temple with a sigh.

"She took a slight fall and while nothing is broken and Edgar and her assure me she's fine, she's on bed rest for some deep bruising. I want to leave late in the night and simply leave her a note saying I've gone to attend matters in the city to the north with another guard while she's bedridden." She explained her, what was practically an escape plan.

"So…you want me to basically sneak you up the North Mountain to mine for a stone that maybe exists?" He summed up.

"Yes." She smiled.

He sighed and stood from his chair, fists on his hips.

"Alright, whenever you're ready."

She stood as well and smiled.

"I don't have time to waste Lord Bjorgman. We leave tonight. You prepare, I am going to go and cover my bases." She dismissed him and he turned to go but stopped to throw one last thing over his shoulder.

"I hope you're not planning on climbing a mountain in a dress, Elsa." She glanced down at the ice created gown thoughtfully when he'd gone.

 

* * *

 

Jarvis, the Royal guard Captain was only too glad to hand Henrick over to the Queen. Luckily she need not explain what she wanted him for.

He and his dragon Athor were gone within a few hours, on course for a full border patrol of the kingdom. Completely safe for the guard and would allow her 3 days to acquire the spring quartz, If it existed.

If Anna asked Jarvis would tell her that Henrick had been asked for by the queen and left. She called Kai into her study and explained all to him, it was better to air on the side of caution in case something went wrong and they didn't return in 3 days someone would know where they had gone and could look for them. She sincerely hoped all went well but her father had taught her it was better to be safe than sorry.

The Head servant was quite obviously against this but gave his word to keep his silence unless they took longer than 3 days. She wrote out her short letter to Anna, explaining her whereabouts and gave it to Kai to deliver to the knight in the morning.

When he left she blew out the candles and made her way to their shared room. Anna was lying under the sheets flipping through an old leather tome. She looked up when the queen walked in.

"Hey, Snowflake." She greeted with a toothy smile. "Anything interesting happen today?" She wondered, clapping the book closed and looking at Elsa intently.

"Not unless you consider a meeting with the head of agriculture interesting." She smiled as she began undressing. She hated to have to lie to the knight, but it was for the surprise.

Anna's nose wrinkled distastefully. "You know I don't…but you know what would be much more interesting?" She grinned and wagged her brows suggestively giving the queen pause.

It was tempting, very. But Kristoff would be waiting outside the eastern wall for her in an hour and even slightly injured the knight had an unholy stamina that could last till dawn.

"Sorry Freckles, but not tonight." She slid into the bed and leaned over to press a kiss to the corner of Anna's mouth.

The knight pouted but acquiesced, turning to fully catch the queens lips in a kiss that lasted longer than it should have, for once regretfully lighting the fire in Elsa's stomach before pulling back and flopping over on her side facing away from the queen, copper hair splayed out behind her.

"G'night, Elsa." She mumbled.

"Goodnight." She smiled and blew out the bedside candles and snuggled into Anna's back, gently tracing her fingers down the curve of her hip, content to be close for the moment.

A half hour later she became aware that the knights breathing had evened out and her usual light snoring and occasional sleepy muttering about swords and dumb dragons was the only sound in their bedroom. She slipped silently out from under the covers and walked over to the wardrobe in the corner and quickly found what she was looking for and dressed.

She managed to stay silent as she walked back over to the bed and leaned down to place a feather light kiss on a freckled cheek.

"It's my turn to have an adventure outside these walls, even if it's just for a little while. Try not to worry, Freckles." Her voice was barely a whisper of breath and sound as she placed another gentle kiss on the redheads face, skin barely touching before she left the room just as quietly.

She slipped down the halls and into the empty kitchen to take the stairs down into the back of the castle where food was brought in. Her steps echoed almost deafeningly in the castles dead quiet.

Elsa pressed herself up against the wall and peeked around the corner. Not a soul in sight. A flick of her wrist and staircase of ice climbed up and over the eastern wall. She ran up and over the wall, ice disappearing behind her leaving no trace.

She couldn't help but smile when she touched down onto the grass just outside the castle walls. The first time in her life she had ever stepped foot outside the castle without a guard (including Anna, was technically her guard above all else).

"Over here Elsa." Her head whipped in surprise toward the voice. Kristoff was hunkered down behind some bushes. She quickly joined him the foliage.

"I almost didn't recognize you. It's so…different for you." He finished lamely.

That was one way of putting it she thought as she smoothed out any wrinkles in the black trousers and blue and white trimmed tunic over a tight white undershirt. Old worn black boots completed the queen's new look, though due to their slight height difference she had to wear the pants a little lower on her waist.

Everything she was wearing belonged of course to Anna. Hopefully she wouldn't notice that some of her old clothes had gone missing suddenly, though the chances weren't good. The blue tunic was her favorite and she wore it often.

It was Elsa's favorite to though. Occasionally after they made love she would pick it off the floor and sleep in it. Anna laughed at her whenever she did but it didn't bother the queen in the slightest.

The garment brought her comfort. When Anna had gone to Uzyrf Isle the queen slept in the blue shirt every night that she was gone. It had smelled like her for the first few weeks. Leather and Jasmine, it helped sooth the anxiety and loneliness she felt whenever she reached over the bed and find the space beside her empty and cold.

In some of her fondest memories of the Knight she was wearing the blue fabric.

Even now, in the dead of night, leaving the castle, in a way by herself for the first the faint smell of Anna helped push away the fears lingering in the back of her mind. Like the courage and strength of the garments usual wearer was rubbing off on her.

"You said not to wear a dress and if I'm going to do something of Anna level rashness I may as well look the part, yes?" He gave a snort and shook his head, grinning.

"I guess so. Let's go." He turned and disappeared into the brush. Elsa followed him, sneaking about int brush and trees till they came out in a clearing. Sven was waiting patiently, hooked up to the blonde mans sled. Some sacks sat in the back next to a couple bed rolls and some tools and rope. He was far more prepared then she was. She was suddenly very glad she'd asked Kristoff to accompany her.

She climbed into the sled and made herself comfortable on the wooden bench, Kristoff hopped in beside her grabbed up the reins.

"Let's go Sven." He gave a light slap and the reindeer began to pull them along. After a few minutes Elsa noticed that they weren't heading directly to the mountain.

"Where are we going Kristoff?" She tried to not let any of the worry bubbling in her gut show. He glanced at her.

"I was thinking about what you said. About the Spring Quartz maybe existing, and I figured before we go all the way up the mountain for nothing we could ask someone who might know."

"You know someone who knows about such things?" She asked surprised. He nodded.

"Yup. Trust me. If anyone knows anything about this magical stone we're looking for it'll be Pabbie" Kristoff assured with a smile.

"Pabbie?" She echoed.

 

* * *

 

Elsa followed Kristoff into the large clearing full of boulders cautiously. She had yet to see a soul. The rising sun was casting long shadows over the valley. She jumped when the blonde began to talk loudly to no one.

"Hey, you guys. Sorry it took me so long to visit. Wow, you look great..." He leaned over and smiled at one of the rocks.

She watched him silently for a moment.

"I...have made a mistake…" She mumbled to herself as she took a few slow steps backwards. Kristoff looked up and saw her and put his hands up.

"Wait, Elsa." He called. Just as she was about to turn and run the moss covered rocks around her began to shake and roll forward toward the man. She watched amazed as they popped up.

"Kristoff!" They chorused before attacking him in a mob of hugs and greetings.

"Trolls" The queen mumbled surprised. Kristoff waved her over and every eye turned to her.

"Come on, it's alright." He laughed as a young troll hopped into his arms.

"Oh, he brought a girl!" A female troll shouted excitedly.

"Whoa! Whoa no! This is Anna's…uh...longtime…fiancé?" He looked at Elsa questioningly. She giggled at his lost expression.

"Lover" She supplied unabashed. It was simpler then the confusion that accompanied that question. It didn't come up often. To most Anna was introduced simply as her knight. He cleared his throat uncomfortably and nodded. She suspected because they were after all talking about his sister.

"Also, the Queen" He added.

"The Queen!?" Surprised mumbles went up around them.

"Yes, the Queen. We came to talk to grand Pabbie. Where is he?" Just as he asked another troll came rolling up to them for which the others quickly moved aside.

Elsa noticed he was obviously older than the others and well respected, where before they had been loud and rambunctious they had now quieted significantly. His grass hair was long and he wore several strings of bright glowing yellow crystals around his neck.

"Your majesty." His voice was deep and gravely as he dipped his head in reverence.

"Grand Pabbie, we came to ask you about a magical gemstone called Spring Quartz, do you know anything about it?"

"Aye, I know of the stone. Dust from the ore was once used in healing remedies." He looked between them.

"So it does exist then?" Elsa took an excited step forward, face lighting up. The elder troll nodded.

"It does. It is very rare, but it does exist, high up on the Northern peak. Few ever go looking and come back though." He warned.

"Well not just anyone can scale the North Mountain. It takes an experienced climber to even attempt it." The blonde man informed and Elsa clasped her hands together. She was not an experienced mountain climber in the least. She wasn't experienced at anything really other than ruling her kingdom, and even that she only had a scant 3 years at.

Kristoff glanced over at her and noticed the suddenly anxious worry painted on her face. He laid a gentle hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry, Elsa." He jerked a thumb toward himself. "I am an experienced climber, and between that and your powers we'll get up there no problem." She couldn't help but smile at the confidence exuding off him. Perhaps it was a Bjorgman thing.

He turned back to the elder troll in front of them.

"Do you know where the stone is Pabbie?" The troll rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"No one but those who have obtained it know exactly where it is." The queen's face fell. "However, I know where the stone might be." Both blondes perked at this.

"Listen closely…"

 

* * *

 

Anna blinked groggily, forcing herself up and smacking her lips and wiping at the dried slobber on her chin. The fully risen sun was shining brightly into the bedroom. She glanced around tiredly. Where was Elsa?

Why hadn't she woken her? The blonde was nearly always awake before her and even if she had early morning things to do she never left without waking her, if anything just to kiss her good morning. It was strange and immediately set the redhead on edge.

She climbed out of the bed and stumbled over to the wardrobe. She hobbled into a pair of black trousers and an undershirt before digging through the clothes.

"Where the hell is my favorite tunic?" She grumbled sifting through the once neatly folded garments. She was positive she'd seen it just yesterday but now it was gone. She sighed irritably rubbing her temple.

So far it was not looking like it was going to be a good day, and she'd only just gotten up! She grabbed a dark green tunic with gold trim and pulled it over her head before starting the process of taming her wild mane.

A light knock on the bedroom door caused her to look up just as she finished twisting her hair into its usual plaits.

"Are you awake Lady Anna? Breakfast is ready." Kai's voice muffled through the wood.

"Yeah I'm up..." She paused. "Hey Kai?" The door open and the older balding man stepped inside with a smile.

"Yes, Anna?"

"Did Elsa have some kind of early meeting or something today?" She sat on the bed and began pulling on her boots, waiting for the head servant to tell her where their queen was.

"No, Anna. Her majesty has left the castle for business she had to attend." Before he could even finish the sentence the knights head whipped up so fast Kai could hear a crack.

"What!? She left without me?!" She was yelling. Kai grimaced.

"I am afraid so. She left a letter with me to give to you." He pulled the neatly folded letter out of his jacket. Anna crossed the room in a few quick strides, snatching the paper from between his fingers and ripped it open.

Anna,

I have business to attend to in Nord Dalen with the lord there. You need to stay and finish your ordered bed rest so I didn't tell you about it.

Henrick and Athor are joining me so don't worry about me. I'll be back soon in a couple days.

love,

Elsa

Anna growled, crumpling the letter.

She'd snuck out. Elsa had literally snuck out of the castle so she wouldn't insist on going with her.

"Damn it, Elsa!" Kai was looking at her expectantly. She crossed her arms over her chest. Stance rigid and hard, clearly conveying her anger. "She's putting my health above her own again…"

"She cares for you Anna." He tried to sooth the fiery woman's growing agitation. Her eyes softened but her body remained rigid.

"I know that…but it's my sole duty in this world to protect her life, how can I do that if she's intentionally sneaking away from me!?" She growled, slapping her palm against her forehead. After a moment she sighed, shoulders slumping. "It's too late to do anything but wait I guess." She grumbled

"Quite. Will you still be dining with his highness this morning?" The servant wondered.

"Yeah, I'll head down there now…" He nodded and gave a slight bow before excusing himself to his duties.

She looked down at the slightly crumpled paper in her hand and sighed.

"Damn it, Elsa…"

 

* * *

 

"Please tell me we're almost there." Elsa huffed leaning her forehead against the cold mountain side. He legs were burning and the rope tied around her waist bit into her.

They had no choice but to climb this particular sheer section of mountain, she couldn't use her powers because she could not see past the clouds to where her ice would go. She glanced up just in time to see Kristoff disappear over the edge.

"Almost, just a little farther, Elsa." She forced her sore muscles to climb, putting her hands and feet only where Kristoff had before her. The sharp edges bit into her hands through the gloves she'd grabbed last second out of her bedside table. The leather kept her from cut but she still didn't care for the way jagged mountain rock bit into her.

Within a few feet from the top He reached down and pulled her the rest of the way up. She slumped against the ground, panting. Kristoff stood over her with a smirk.

"You…don't get out much do you, Elsa?" The amusement in his voice was quite obvious. She pushed herself up on sore noodle arms and tried not to glare at him. He was helping her after all.

"Whatever…gave you….that…idea..." She huffed between words. She wobbled to her feet when she'd regained her breath in the thin mountain air. "No, I climb mountains and swim oceans regularly." The sarcasm dripped from every word. He grinned.

"We can't all be as…rugged as you and Anna." She groped for an appropriate word. He smirked.

"Right well, Pabbie said the Spring Quarts is supposed to appear in a cave on the plateau near the peak of the mountain. A few more hours of climbing and we'll be there." The queen paled at the thought of several more hours of this. She fell back onto her butt on the ground a groan that caused Kristoff to break into peals of uncontrollable laughter, doubled over, wheezing.

"Tha- that was…" He couldn't get out more then that. Elsa couldn't keep from glaring this time, there was a lot she could take, but nothing irritated the queen more then to be mocked. The only person she could tolerate it from was Anna, and even the knight knew when to quit pushing her luck.

A flick of her hand and a gust of arctic snow and wind blew into the other blonde, knocking him flat on his ass.

"By the gods that's cold!" He started patting away the snow clinging to his light clothes. She snickered, climbing to her feet and turned to look at the sheer cliff face they still had to surmount. Her arms throbbed just looking at it.

Kristoff brushed away the last bit of snow clinging to him and slammed his pickaxe into the rock begin another trip up the mountain.

"We better get going if we want to make it to the top before dark."

"You can do this, Elsa. For Anna." She mumbled to herself as she grabbed the foot holds Kristoff had previously occupied.

After a while her mind went completely numb, along with her hands. He fingers slipped off the ledge they were gripping and she barely had time to scream before she fell.

The rope went taught, jerking her like a ragdoll.

"Shit!" Kristoff shouted, nearly going down with her. His death grip on the handle of his pickaxe saving them both, if only barely. "Stop squirming and just grab the rope!" He called down to her. She scrambled to grab her anchor, adrenaline giving second life to her sore muscles.

Her heart was in her chest, blood rushing in her ears deafening her. Her feet settled back on the ledge and she found the hand holds, gripping them till her knuckles turned white.

"Just breathe, Elsa. Were nearly there, half a mile and we'll be to the plateau." He was trying to comfort her but hearing that they still had a half mile to climb did not soothe the rattle queen.

The reality of what she was doing had sunken in. She was not like Anna. She wasn't tough or strong. She wasn't raised to climb mountains or adventure to unknown places.

"I can't do this…" Kristoff looked down at her. "I can't do this Kristoff!"

"You can't quit now, Elsa. You can just stay clinging to the side of a mountain for the rest of your life, were already almost there. It's too late to quit!" She shook her head vehemently. He huffed.

"If this is all the guts you have I don't know what my sister sees in you!" He growled. That seemed to get her attention, she looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You do all this and get nearly there then give up? You said you wanted to do this for Anna, well you know if you were Anna she'd keep going even if she fell off and had to start over, but you get almost there and quit, no. You can do this."

Elsa took a deep breath, steadying her heart beat. He was right. Anna never gave up or surrendered. Her mind went back to Amelia and Alistair's wedding. Anna squaring off with four armed men, prepared to die in her defense and now that she was doing something for her she was going to give up?

She looked up at Kristoff and nodded, pulling herself up to the next handhold. He smiled before turning back to climbing.

No less than an hour later Kristoff was climbing over the edge of the plateau with a relieved sigh. He turned and with a heave pulled the queen up to the safety of the ledge.

"We made it." He smiled at her and he shrugged off the pack holding there supplies. She gave him a tired smile from her place sprawled out on the ground. "Now all we have to do is find the cave." He looked around at the rocky area. Elsa groaned. Kristoff chuckled and leaned over her.

"You stay here, I'll go look around. He walked out of her line of sight after a tired nod. Every muscle in her body ached. They only muscle she ever put to work was her hand when she had to write.

She suddenly had a much greater respect for people like Anna and Kristoff. Travelers, climbers and the like. This was much harder then she had expected it to be.

She didn't realize she'd fallen asleep until Kristoff was nudging her awake.

"Elsa, wake up. I found the opening to the cave." He helped her stand. Her legs felt like mush. He picked up the supplied and bound away. Elsa following more slowly, climbing over and ducking under rocks and ledges.

An out cropping of rocks hid the mouth of the cave from view. You would pass it by easily if you weren't looking for it. The orange light of the setting sun lit up the entrance giving them a glimpse of smooth time worn walls and passages that branched in all directions. It wasn't just a cave, it was an entire network of caves and tunnels it seemed.

"It will be dark soon, and you're exhausted. We can make camp here for the night and start looking in the morning." He suggested letting the sack of supplies drop from his shoulders.

She nodded and he went about setting up a fire and breaking out some of their food. It was mostly silent between them for a long while till he decided he had to say something.

"Elsa…" She glanced up at him questioningly. "I'm sorry about the things I said earlier." He fiddled with the pickaxe in his hand. "I was just a little frustrated."

"It's alright Kristoff. You didn't say anything that wasn't true. I just needed a little reminder." She rubbed at the palms of her sore hands. They hurt now but eventually they would be just a memory, while Anna would always have the stone. If they could find it, besides getting down was going to be much easier than going up.

"Well, I'm going to sleep. Night" He flopped back onto his blanket and went still.

She giggled.

"Goodnight"

 

* * *

 

Anna was in a bad mood and the entirety of the castle knew it and was staying out of her way. She was worried about Elsa, which had caused a significant lack of sleep, leaving her moody and anxious.

Not to mention once Olaf had also found that the queen had left the castle without the knight had become a bawling mess for several hours until Anna was finally able to calm him.

She might have had to do a little lying to do it, but he was much happier now and not wailing throughout the castle.

It was late in the afternoon and she sat in the library, flipping idly through a new astronomy book, but even one of her favorite subjects couldn't sway her mind.

"Elsa will be fine." She told herself quietly. "Henrick and Athor are well trained and she'll be fin in Nord Dalen" She rubbed her temple and groaned.

"Maybe I should just go back to bed…" She stood and closed the book leaving it in the library. It would be there when she came back.

Just as she was passing through the foyer did the doors open a tall dark haired man walked in escorted by a pair of guards

"Lady Anna. Lord Burkaw of Nord Dalen wishes for an audience with the queen." Anna's mouth opened to reply when she realized what the guard had said.

"North Dalen?" She blinked. The guard gave a nod and Anna only just managed to work out a response.

"T-the queen is away at the moment, but she should return sometime tomorrow if you'd like to wait, the guards can show you to a room." He nodded and said something more before they escorted him away but Anna was deaf to it.

If Elsa was not in Nord Dalen, where was she? Her palms grew clammy and the moment it was appropriate she ran from the foyer in search of Jarvis. If Henrick had gone with Elsa he would know about it as Captain of the guard.

It took her several hours longer than it should have to find Jarvis. It was on her third pass around the castle she found him in the stable with his dragon Jura.

"Jarvis!" The Guard Captain jumped turning to see Anan he smiled.

"What can I do for you Lady Anna?" He asked as he pulled Jura's saddle off.

"Where's Henrick?" her fingers drummed against the hilt of winters sting nervously.

"Henrick?" He repeated. She nodded impatiently.

"There he is now, Anna." He pointed to a spot over her shoulder.

"What!?" She nearly shrieked whipping around and sure enough, Henrick astride Athor was landing in the field in front of the stables. She ran out to meet him.

"Henrick, where have you been?" She was starting to get a horrible feeling. He blinked at her.

"Her majesty sent me on a patrol of the borders late the night before last, why?" He asked curiously.

Anna swallowed thickly. Elsa was not in Nord Dalen and Henrick was not with her.

The queen was somewhere unknown, alone. For who knew how long…

"Lady Anna?" Henrick looked at her concerned. Her mouth opened to reply but no sound came out.

Even though summer had scarcely begun she was suddenly sweltering, skin clammy and her stomach tightened in knots. Jarvis came trotting up beside them.

"Are you alright, Lady Anna?" He reached out to touch her shoulder but it fell away.

The last thing she saw was the sky as she fell back, vision going black.

 

* * *

 

"Have you found anything yet?" Kristoff asked as he walked up to her in the long dark tunnels, his lantern being their only source of light. This was the 5th time he had asked in since they'd started looking that morning, which if she had to guess had been about 6 hours ago. It was hard to keep time under the ground away from the light.

"Yes, Kristoff, I found it about a half hour ago, but now I've hidden it again so you can find it." He rolled his eyes and held the lantern up.

"I stand corrected. I'm starting to see exactly what Anna sees in you. Attitude." He walked off down the tunnel. Elsa huffed but followed him anyway.

A low grumbling noise echoed against the stone walls ominously. Elsa jumped.

'Wh-what was that?" Her powers thrummed under skin when her fear began to well up. Kristoff grinned sheepishly at her over his shoulder.

"Sorry, that was my stomach." He patted his gut. The queen let out a relieved and agitated sigh. They climbed down a winding tunnel, descending deeper into the mountain.

"If we don't find it in the next few hours were going to have to give up." He threw over his shoulder. She pursed her lips but said nothing. He was right. If she wanted to make it back before Henrick they would have to leave by nightfall at the latest.

He took his pickaxe and cared an arrow in the wall before they turned down another side tunnel, marking their way back. She was so glad she had him. She admittedly wouldn't have thought of something like that till she was already hopelessly lost in the maze of tunnels. They came out of the tunnel into an open cave, with a couple branching tunnels.

Another quiet sound vibrated off the cave walls into her ears. She huffed.

"Kristoff, will you just eat something already." He stood stock still in front of her, lantern down at his side.

"That wasn't me…" He mumbled quietly. A much louder noise broke the quiet stillness, a loud screeching sound. Kristoff thrust his lantern up towards the ceiling, the source of the sound and his mouth dropped open.

Elsa followed the tilt of his head and froze. The ceiling of the cave was a mass of bats hanging from the rocky surface.

"Oh sh-" A loud screech and the animals all burst into flight and loud chirping noises, filling the room with movement and noise.

The blondes screamed before turning and running into the nearest tunnel as the swarm of creatures flew past them, some colliding into them. He threw up the lantern warding them away from himself till they had gone.

In all the commotion he didn't notice the queen take a turn into a dark adjoining tunnel. She didn't get far before her boots met air and she was felling 10 feet to another cavern below. Her scream alerted Kristoff that she was no longer with him.

'Elsa!" He ran back down the tunnel toward the scream and slid to a halt barely before tumbling into the hole himself, a faint green glowing light alerting him to it. He held the lantern out of the gaping hole, shining light on the fallen monarch.

"Are you alright?" He asked frantically trying to see if she were hurt from above.

Elsa grimaced, pushing herself up slowly. That hurt, that much was certain, but as she slowly ran her hands over her body she seemed to be alright, incredibly sore from her over worked muscles falling against the stone but mostly alright.

"Y-yes. I'm alright." She glanced around and her breath caught. On the far wall of the cavern a large cropping of bright green crystals giving off a dim but warm glow. "K-Kristoff I found it!" He peeked down into the hole, seeing the crystals his face lit up in a grin.

"Stay there, I'm going to get the rope!" He called as his quick footsteps faded away. She pushed her self carefully to her feet and approached the glowing stone cautiously. She reached out and pressed her fingers to it gently. Her magic pulsed under her skin, magic was definitely afoot.

This was certainly Spring Quartz.

A rope came flying down the hole followed by Kristoff, lantern in hand and pickaxe clenched between his teeth.

"I can't believe we found it." He grinned practically skipping over to her. "So how big a chunk are we taking with us, what are you having it made into?" He twirled the pickaxe in his hand.

"I was thinking of a ring, but maybe a decent sized piece in case something happens to it. She has a tendency to break things you know." She smiled at the big blonde man. He grinned nodding.

"Right, okay then, stand back." She took a few steps back as he began to hack away at the stone till a fist sized chunk of the ore broke away from the rest.

Elsa picked it up and grinned before sticking it in their sack.

"Oh, hey, are you sure you're not hurt from the fall?" He asked resting the pickaxe over his shoulder. She shook her head and realized that the incredible soreness she had felt before had completely disappeared. Her eyes widened and she turned to look back at the large mass of crystal, no doubt it was because of her close proximity to the large amount of ore.

"Yes…I'm fine." She smiled. "Let's hurry back to the castle." He nodded and handed her the axe and lamp and began pulling himself up the rope back to the upper floor.

"Tie the rope around your waist and I'll pull you up." He called down. She did just that and soon they were following their markers back to the caves entrance into the waning light of day.

Knowing now where the ledges and cliff were from climbing up it was simple to make steps that lead down the mountain. Ascending had taken nearly a whole day but descending took little over an hour.

Sven nearly attacked the blonde man when they made it back to the sled. He laughed, scratching the beast behind the ears as she climbed into the sled. He climbed in beside her and with a light slap of the reins they were off through the woods.

She reached into the bag and pulled out the chunk of green ore and couldn't help but grin. Kristoff glanced at her out of the corner of his eye.

"Tell me the truth here Elsa." She looked over at him curiously. "Why didn't you just send me, why did you have to come on this very dangerous trip?"

She sat quiet, thinking.

"I really did want to get this for her myself, but I did have another reason. Anna is of course my knight, so she worries for my safety at every turn, I know she doesn't think me helpless, she knows very well from past experience that I'm not."

Kristoff cocked a brow but the queen just shook her head. She didn't really want to talk about the time she'd skewered a man with her power.

"Sometimes it feels like she thinks I am though."

"It's her sole duty in life to protect you. She drives herself crazy with worry sometimes." He glanced back to the trail in front of them.

Elsa nodded.

"I know, it's just she sometimes forgets that while she may be my Knight, and duty bound to protect me at all costs, I am bound as well, by my heart, to protect her in any way I can. Unfortunately our desire to protect each other sometimes clash when we do things that put ourselves in danger for the others sake." Her lips twitched into a smile as she spoke. Kristoff chuckled.

"Like now?" He nodded to the large chunk of raw Spring Quartz in the queen's hands. She smiled widely and nodded.

"Yes. A little danger for me now, which she of course will be angry about for a bit but in exchange, better protection for her, which makes it worth it to me." She fingered the rough edges of the uncut stone.

"I wish I had a love like the two of you have." He admitted shyly.

"I hope you do someday as well." She nodded.

Kristoff stopped in town and let Elsa drop the stone off with the jeweler, but she had him break off a smaller chunk and they took the rest with them. The man promised a clean, cut and polished ring would be ready in two days.

Sitting in front of the castle the queen stepped out of the sled and turned back to the burly blonde man with a smile.

"I don't know how to thank you Kristoff. I would not have been able to do this without you." She folded her hands over her stomach. The man shrugged and smiled.

"Glad to do it. Let's just say you owe me a favor to be paid later." He grinned. The queen nodded.

"I can agree to that. Here." She sat the ore back in the bag. "I'll collect this later, I don't want Anna to see it so if you would take it with you for now?" She asked. He nodded and set the bag safely between his legs to ensure it went nowhere.

"Sure. Well, I'm heading home." He glanced up at the castle. "Good luck" He slapped the reins and was off.

She turned back to the castle. She would need some luck.

Her magic granted her quick and quiet access back into the castle. The halls were empty and Anna should be asleep.

She quietly pushed open their bedroom door and slipped inside but it was rendered moot when she found the candles lit and the knight pacing restlessly back and forth, wearing a hole in the wooden floor. Her head whipped to the door and her eyes widened briefly.

"ELSA!" She nearly screamed before pouncing on the queen, her arms tightening around her in a death grip. She was so surprised by the 'attack' it took a moment to notice the knight was shaking hard and her shoulder was suddenly wet. Her stomach dropped like a lead weight with the realization that something had gone wrong. She wrapped her arms around the knights neck, pressing a kiss into the red locks and cooing quietly into her ear.

"I was so worried about you..." Anna's managed between muffled sobbing. It stabbed at the blondes heart. It was a while before the knight had calmed enough to loosen her grip and pull back enough that they could look at each other.

Elsa bit her lip guiltily. There were dark circles under the redheads eyes indicating her lack of sleep and they were red and puffy from her crying.

She sniffed finally really looking at the queen.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?" She mumbled eyeing the queen up and down then shook her head "Doesn't matter." She pressed her forehead against Elsa's, eyes closing. "I'm just so glad you're alright." She breathed.

"I'm sorry, Anna." She mumbled. Teal eyes opened once more to stare into hers.

"Where were you?" She asked. Elsa knew it was coming.

"I left you a let-"The knight reared back with a frown.

"Don't even try to give me that shit, Elsa. The Lord of Nord Dalen is in the guest rooms, waiting on YOU to come back so he could have an audience, and Henrick came back last night." She practically hissed the last part. Now that Elsa was here safe in front of her worry was giving way to monumental fury.

"I didn't know where you were, who you were with if anyone or when or if you were even coming back!" She flung her arms out in anger and exasperation. "How could you expect me to not be out of my mind with worry?!" She yelled.

Elsa flinched at every word. She felt extremely guilty that her plan had fallen through and Anna had spent the past two days worrying.

"I'm sorry Anna." The knight shook her head.

"Where have you been?" She asks again and before the queen can even respond she knows the conversation is not going to end well.

"I…can't tell you." She replies and Anna looks like she's just been slapped.

"Can't…what do you mean you can't tell me?" Anna grounds out.

"it doesn't matter now does it? I'm back and everything is fine." Elsa pleaded. Anna fists are clenched and copper brows pulled low over her darkening teal eyes.

"You're back but everything is not fine." She bites out and walks around the queen toward the door. Elsa grabs her arm but she jerks it away.

"Anna, please. You just have to trust me." She begged.

"How can I trust you when I know you lied to me? Just tried to lie to me again? How?!" Anna raged and paused only a moment. When the queen said nothing she turned and left the room, slamming the door behind her.

Elsa wanted to go after her but knew it would be useless. Anna would stay mad unless she told her where she had been and she couldn't.

For the first time since they'd been together they broke the never going to bed angry rule.

 

* * *

 

The first two days after their fight was miserable. Anna took her meals in the kitchen and stayed in her old room. It didn't take long for the staff to become aware of the large bone of contention between the Queen and Knight. They didn't speak, not for Elsa's lack of trying, but Anna short and curt, halting any conversation before it could begin.

At dinner the second night Olaf who had been wisely holding his tongue spoke up.

"Are you two fighting again?" The prince asked quietly. He couldn't stand it when Anna and his sister were fighting, it threw off his whole way of life.

The queen sighed tiredly.

"No. She's mad at me right now because I won't tell her where I was and made her worry." She told the prince who frowned.

"Tell her where you were." He huffed and threw his hands up. A gesture that made her smile, he'd assuredly picked up from Anna.

"I will, but I can't just yet." She said and left it at that.

After dinner she had Henrick escort her to the jewelers to pick up the piece of jewelry. The man happily presented her with it.

"It's perfect." She smiled and paid him for his work.

 

* * *

 

Two days later the tension had grown unbearable and the staff and Olaf were about to lose their minds. The two woman had never stayed mad at each other for so long. Luckily it was finally the Knights birthday and Elsa could begin to make amends.

With the ring wrapped in a box she made her way to the library where the knight holed herself up after she finished making rounds and instructing Olaf.

She stuck her head inside and sure enough the Knight was sitting slumped over a table, idly flipping through a leather bound tome.

She knew Anna heard her as she approached but she didn't look up or move. The queen sighed silently and pulled out the chair next to her. The redhead made to get up but Elsa grabbed her arm.

"Anna, please. I need to talk to you and I'm not asking. This is an order." They didn't use rank on each other very often. They tried to let mutual respect and affection dictate arguments, but Anna was still too mad to listen.

Anna scowled but plopped back into the chair if reluctantly. Arms folding across her chest.

"I want to tell you about where I was." She started but the knight was quick to cut her off.

"It doesn't matter anymore. You're the queen; you can do whatever you want. I'm just kind of...here." She shrugged looking anywhere but at Elsa.

"It does matter." She insisted slamming her hand on the table making Anna jump in surprise. She sighed. "I'm sorry. Very sorry Anna, but it…was a surprise." The redhead glanced at her from the corner of her eye.

Elsa pulled the box out of the pocket of her dress and set it in front of the knight. Who looked at it curiously.

"Happy birthday, Anna."

She glanced at Elsa then the box. Torn between staying angry and aloof or opening her gift. She bit her lip before reaching out and picking up the small wooden box and opening it. Her gasp was quiet but audible.

She pulled it out of the box quietly. A beautifully cut and polished rectangular green gemstone set in shining silver. Four silver prongs shaped like dragon talons held the delicate gem in its setting, the crocus engraved into the sides of the metal in sharp relief.

The bright green stone had a slight glow, making the light bounce and shine off its many facets. It was immaculately detailed down to the tiny scales of the dragon talons.

"I had to go up the North Mountain to find that stone. It's called Spring Quartz. It wards away dark magic and has strong healing abilities. Your brother went with me. She turned fully to look at the queen at that. Her lips pursed but her eyes went back to the ring in her hand.

"You…you're always getting hurt…this will help some...i hope you like it." She stood up and only managed a few steps before Anna had jumped up and wrapped her arms around the blondes' waist, halting her.

"I love it." The knight mumbled into her shoulder. He edges of the queens lips twitched upwards.

"I'm glad…" She grabbed the arms circled around her waist, enjoying the first contact she'd had with Anna in over 4 days.

"I'm so-" The queen shook her head silencing 5the inevitable apology from the knight.

"No, don't. You were right, to be mad at me. I handled this all rather poorly and made you worry. I should have taken guards with me instead of basically going alone, though Kristoff was more than helpful, especially when I nearly fell to my death." Anna's grip on her became impossibly tight as she turned her around to face her.

"Why didn't you take them with you?" Her words sounded angry but her face was nothing but pleading to understand.

Elsa looked elsewhere, she should tell Anna the truth, the whole truth.

"I wanted to be the one to do this for you...but also…I guess I just wanted to be the brave one for once…"

Anna sighed, leaning her forehead against Elsa's forcing the queen to look at her.

"Just because you aren't the one getting injured and fighting doesn't mean you aren't brave, and you don't have to prove it to me or anyone by throwing yourself into dangerous situations" She sighed

"…so don't do that anymore...Promise me you won't…you almost gave me a damn heart attack and I DID black out." She gave the queen a light poke that made her smile.

"I'm sorry…I promise, I'll leave all the rash decisions to you from now on." She smirked.

"Good, I'm only 22 today. It's too early for you to be scaring me to death." The knight gave a small grin. "Though I have to say…I didn't terribly mind seeing you in my clothes…" She grinned

Elsa rolled her eyes and reached over and picked the ring up off the table.

"Well, hopefully this will help keep you among the living." She slid it onto the middle finger of the knights right hand.

"Perfect" She smiled. Anna leaned forward and kissed the red smiling lips.

"It is." She agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So This was the original prompt : Anna finds out Elsa's birthday is coming up and goes on a quest to get the perfect gift for her queen But Anna doing dangerous things for Elsa is nothing new. I thought it would be more fun to send Elsa out on this one. What do ya'll think?
> 
> Prompt from Hyogoko on Tumblr


	4. Snow Day

It had been snowing for the past 2 straight days. Winter was in full swing and had brought not a sheet but a 6 inch deep blanket of snow to cover the kingdom with. When the denizens of Arendelle awoke on the third day they were all relieved to see that the snow had finally stopped.

Including the royal family plus one knight.

The sun had just risen, hidden by thick gray clouds when the 8 year old crown Prince bound into the Queen and her consort's room with a jovial grin, flying into the bed.

"Anna, Elsa!" He cried landing atop the snuggling women. Anna grunted from her place being spooned by the taller woman.

"Noooo too early, Olaf." She moaned pulling the sheet up to cover her head.

"You promised. You both did." He whined rolling around atop them. Elsa moaned and reached out to still her little brother.

"Promised…what?" She mumbled, burying her nose into Anna's copper hair. Anna huffed, pushing herself back harder against the queens front, silently conveying her wish to not move nor for Elsa to move. The blonde gave an amused snort.

Olaf frowned before starting to wiggle his way in between them. Anna groaned Planting her palm in the middle of his face and pushing him away. The prince growled at her.

"You promised we'd all go and play in the snow when it stopped snowing and it stopped snowing." He pushed against the knights arm but his strength did nothing to budge the redhead.

"Not. At the crack of dawn…" She grumbled. Shoving him away and turning over to bury her face into the queens' chest.

Elsa watched the brief exchange through one cracked eye with a smirk. She already knew who was going to win this battle and while Anna tried to have hope that she could prevail, she knew too.

With a pounce the crown prince flung himself atop them with a gurgled battle cry.

"Get UP" He yanked at the sheets but the knight held to them fast, acutely aware of her state of undress. Anna pursed her lips scowling at the albino boy.

"Fine, were up!" She conceded. The prince grinned jumping up and off the bed, disappearing as he closed the door behind him.

"Breakfast first." Elsa called after him then turned to look at the groggy and irritated knight with a smile and kissed the scar across her nose.

"You know you'll never win." She said sitting up, causing the blue tunic she was wearing to slip down. Anna sniffed airily, pushing herself up and throwing her arms around the queens chest and pressed a kiss the blondes exposed shoulder.

"I will never surrender; I'll fight on for you my queen." She announced dramatically causing Elsa to giggle.

"It's not a battle, darling." She rolled her eyes, ducking out of the knights embrace and sliding out of bed.

"That's what you think but believe me, Snowflake. It's not just a battle it's a war between he and I." She shook her fist, lips pulled back in a snarl.

Elsa rolled her eyes and pulled the tunic over her head dropping it back on the floor where she'd picked it up the night before and shook out the platinum curls, well aware of the teal eyes burning holes in her skin.

"I can feel your stare…" She glanced over her shoulder and sure enough Anna was starring shamelessly from where she was still sitting in the bed. Her eyes swiveled upward to meet Elsa's and gave a shrug.

"Sorry, but I'm not sorry." She grinned, running her hands through her mess of hair. Elsa rolled her eyes.

"You never are when basic shame is involved." She waltzed over to the wardrobe to grab a dress and certainly not putting extra swing in her hips for the redhead. That was her story anyway.

"Shame? What's that?" She smirked. "Were going out with Olaf why don't you just make a dress, cold doesn't bother you anyway." She suggested standing from the bed with a stretch and pulled on her discarded breeches.

The queen hummed thoughtfully before deciding Anna was right and with a flick of her wrist the air briefly filled with ice crystals before solidifying into her favorite shimmering dress.

"That should be a crime." She heard Anna grumble under her breath. Elsa regarded her now dressed in Knight over her shoulder as she sat at the vanity and began running a brush through the thick silvery curls.

"What should be a crime?" She asked curiously as Anna came up and stood behind her, swooping down and pressing a kiss the corner of the queen's mouth.

"Being that beautiful of course." She grinned and pulled back when the queens cheeks were a suitable shade of pink and strapped her sword around her waist.

"You're incorrigible…thank you" She mumbled with a smile.

Anna winked. "I'll see you in the dining room" She walked down the hall, stifling a yawn. She was going to have to have a serious talk with the crown prince about coming into rooms unannounced. She'd had a death grip on that blanket to keep him from pulling it back.

Olaf was sitting in his usual spot, waiting for the meal to be served. She walked up behind him and slapped a hand down on his head. He yelped in surprise.

"You and I need to have a serious talk, Olaf" She grunted. 'You can't just go barging in to peoples rooms, especially not Elsa's and mine." She frowned down at him

'Why?" He blinked up at her, brow furrowed in confusion. Anna couldn't stop the tips of her ears from turning red as she cleared her throat.

"It's rude for one, and…just because…you have to knock and you can't come in till they let you. You know that." She scolded.

The prince slumped a little but gave a nod that he understood. Anna was the last person he ever wanted upset with him.

She ruffled his snowy white hair affectionately making him smile before she took her place in the seat to the left of the one at the head of the table just as Elsa walked in. She stopped to kiss the princes cheek making him giggle before sitting in her place at the head of the table. Olaf wiggled in his seat impatiently throughout the meal. Sky blue eyes glancing back and forth between Anna and his sister.

Ann decided that it was a good day to really start savoring her meals, eating much slower than usual. She glanced at the impatient Prince and smirked. Elsa, though still eating her own meal was well aware of what the redhead was doing and couldn't help rolling here her eyes and send a look the knights way.

Anna just smirked and gave an almost unnoticeable shrug and stifled a laugh when Olaf let out a groaning noise of impatience, sliding down his chair. A stern look from his sister had him scrambling back up into the chair with a pout.

Anna shoved a forkful in her mouth to keep from laughing at the albino boy.

Soon enough he was running ahead of them out the gates and towards the stables, not wanting to leave Tulvir and Frost out of the fun. Anna pulled her fur cloak tightly around her shoulders and flexed her fingers in her leather gloves, boots crunching in the snow. She glanced sideways at the queen.

"Are you sure..." Elsa cut her off.

"No, I'm not cold." She sighed but smiled at the knight affectionately. Anna held her hands up in surrender.

"Fine, fine." She followed Olaf into the stables where he was attempting to climb onto Tulvir's back. "No, Olaf." She grabbed him around the waist and set him back on the ground. "You know the deal. You can't start learning to ride him till you're 13."

The prince frowned but said nothing, knowing he'd been caught. Anna pulled open the gate releasing Tulvir who followed Olaf as he leapt through the snow into the field. Frost nuzzled the knight happily with small growls and chirps as she opened the gate to his stall.

"Morning to you too." Anna grinned and rubbed the smooth cool scales across his snout. He snorted a cloud of icy air in response.

"Come on Anna!" Olaf called from outside. She gave him another pat before turning and heading back out of the stables with Frost ambling behind her.

Elsa was standing just outside the stables, waiting for her.

"He wants to ride Tulvir so much he can't stand it." She said as she watched Olaf run around with the icy lizard. It always fascinated the Knight that the lizard was so different from his sire. Tulvir was of the same size roughly, but where Frosts thick hide was a bright sapphire blue Tulvir's was an icy blue, and instead of the emerald eyes her blue beast possessed Tulvir's eyes were such a light shade of blue they seemed almost white, the skin of his wings was a snowy white.

He was as excitable and playful as his young master.

Anna was pretty sure he was an albino. Just like the young prince. That was why of the three hatchlings she'd gifted that one to Olaf. Athor and Jura were more similar to their sire, but still different.

Athor was bigger than Frost and his siblings, but not by much. From her time on Uzyrf she'd seen only one other ice dragon, but she assumed they just didn't grow to be that big. Most of the dragons on the isle weren't save for the Bull drakes, and she suspected it was because they didn't fly.

He was a dark midnight blue with bright yellow eyes. His horns black as jet like Frosts, but so was the skin of his wings. Henrick was in love with the beast and while it was quite mutual Athor had no love for anyone save Henrick and the other dragons. He tolerated Anna's presence so frequently in the stables after a debacle in which the dragon snapped at her and was set upon by Frost, who beat the younger lizard into submission with vicious snarls and snapping jaws.

Anna left Henrick to his moody beast most of the time.

Jura, the oldest of the three though by mere moments was steel blue. His color reminded Anna of winters sting blade. A deep icy metallic color, that and a pair of sharp fangs that jutted up over his bottom lip was where the differences ended between he and Frost. One could easily tell Jura was a son of Frosts. Though Jura was less playful then Tulvir he was far more approachable then Athor, allowing anyone who entered the stables to pet of fuss over him.

"Yeah, I just had to pull him off." She crunched through the snow. "He can't turn 13 quick enough." She smirked when Elsa shook her head, probably thinking of how old she herself would be by then.

"He's in such a hurry to grow up." She sighed. Anna hummed in agreement.

"Can you blame him when you and I, mostly you, have told him that everything he wants to do has to wait till he's older?" She looked at the queen out of the corner of her eye. Elsa frowned.

"Yet I know you've already let him graduate to wooden sword training despite how we agreed you'd wait another year." She turned accusatory eyes on the knight who grinned sheepishly.

"I'm sure I don't know what you're talking about, Snowflake." She glanced elsewhere.

"I'm sure." Elsa mumbled under her breath, eyes trained on the knight so she didn't notice the snowball till it had slapped her in the face with a light squeal.

They both turned to face the prince, looking stunned before pointing an accusing finger at his dragon.

Anna burst into a loud fit of laughter as Elsa wiped the snow from her face.

"Th-that was great." She laughed, arms wrapped around her waist and doubled over. The only outward sign of the queen's agitation was the small frown now marring her face.

"You should have seen your- oomph" A snowball slapped her square in the face. Olaf squealed with laughter

She wiped the slush off her face and glared at the smirking queen.

"You of course realize that this is an act of war." She declared haughtily, causing the queens smirk to turn into a wide grin.

"Oh, I'm shaking." Her fingers glowed with the telltale signs of her magic and before Anna could blink she was hurling another snowball at her, pelting her in the face. Anna growled and shook her head in time to see another slap the queen upside the head. Olaf cheered and Anna laughed running over the prince, who was hiding behind Tulvir's leg.

Anna squatted down behind the beast with Olaf, both giggling wildly as they scooped up snow

"Betrayed by my own brother, I see how it is." Elsa wiped away the snow with a huff before swinging out her arms, making giant piles of snow pop up all across the field. "If it's a war you two want it's a war you will get."

"Uh-oh" Anna mumbled peaking around Tulvir, watching as with another wave of her hand snowballs began to materialize. At least 100 if she had to guess. "Run Olaf!" The prince made a noise of surprise as she tore across the field, diving behind a mound of snow just as the projectiles began raining down on them.

She could hear Olaf's cries of delight as he ran around the field dodging his sisters snowballs with Tulvir trotting along after him like a puppy, giving the boy away. She pact together a ball of her own and peaked over the snow mound, throwing it and smacking the queen in the chest. Anna grinned till icy blues swiveled to the head of red as it peaked out from behind the pristine white snow like a beacon, Anna swallowed. A snowball flew by her head. She ducked down as 3 more flew by.

She crawled over to the next hill, scooping up snow and tossing it haphazardly toward the queen. Olaf took the opportunity to throw a few but they missed by a mile. Her attention turned to the prince. He turned and ran, tripping over Tulvir's tail and falling face first into a snow pile. He squealed as a deluge of snowballs pelted his rear end sticking out of the snow. Anna couldn't help but laugh, alerting the queen of her position.

Snowballs pelted the snow mound.

"That is cheating, Elsa!" She called, hunkered down behind her minuscule shield of snow. Elsa's giggles floated into her ears and the mound of snow she was leaning against vanished and the back of her head smacked to the ground. The pile had formed into snowballs floating above her. Elsa walked over and peered down at her.

"It's a tactical advantage." Anna could hear the amusement in her voice as clear as day. "I'll accept nothing short of unconditional surrender." Icy orbs glinted with mischief. Copper brows furrowed in defiance.

"Never"

To her credit the shriek that escaped her lips didn't last long as they dropped, burying her completely while the queen burst into laughter.

Olaf jumped out from behind Tulvir and began digging the buried knight out. She sat up, popping out of the snow with a shake of her head and spitting out a mouthful of snow.

"Bleh"

Elsa wiped away the tears, still grinning from ear to ear.

"How about now?" She smirked. Anna huffed, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting. "What was that?" Her fingers began to glow.

"I surrender!" She threw her arms up with a growl. Olaf giggled and the queen just smirked. Frost wandered over and nuzzled Anna still sitting in the pile of snow.

"At least I've got you, Frost." She sniffed, standing up. Elsa rolled her eyes.

"You are so dramatic." She poked Anna's side. The knight turned her nose up. Olaf tugged on the queen's dress.

"Elsa, will you teach me to skate, now?" He looked up at her pleadingly. She smiled and waved her hand, blowing the snow off the frozen pond.

"Alright, Olaf. I'm sure Anna could use a refresher as well." She glanced at Anna who snorted walking out onto the ice. Olaf followed and with a twitch of her fingers blades of ice were fixed to the bottom of their shoes.

"Whoa there!" Olaf slipped but Anna grabbed him by the arms, pulling him back up onto his feet though she wobbled a bit as well.

"Keep your feet straight and push off with the other." Elsa instructed her brother sliding up next to them.

"Uhm..." He wobbled in place, a death grip on the knights hand. Elsa held out her hand and he grabbed it too.

Both women held him between them, keeping him upright as he tested out the ice and inched along.

"That's good, Olaf. Just glide and pivot." She praised. His face scrunched up.

"What's pivot mean?" He blinked up at her. Anna chuckled.

"Keep your ankle straight and turn it" She supplied quickly. She was never sure what the queen would go off and lecture on. She once spent an entire afternoon being taught about fountain pens. She rolled her eyes at the memory. Apparently the queen liked them and while the subject matter had bored her to tears she had enjoyed the way the queens face lit up when she spoke about something for which she had a passion.

"Oh…ok" He mumbled, eyes glued to his feet.

"Don't look at your feet, Olaf. Keep your eyes on where you're going." Elsa gently reminded him. He peeked up but his eyes kept glancing down at his feet.

Anna smirked, giving the princes hand a light squeeze making him look up at her.

"Don't worry about your feet, Olaf. We won't let you fall." He nodded and pried his eyes off his feet to look out in front of him. Elsa glanced at her and she just smiled and shrugged.

They towed him around a few minutes before they spotted Jarvis trotting across the field toward the pond.

"Your majesty, I hate to bother you, but if I may have your attention for a moment?" He called from the shore.

"I'll be back in a minute." She unwound her hand from Olaf's and slid back to the shore where Jarvis awaited with a rolled up piece of parchment.

Anna pulled him out toward the ponds center, pulling the prince into a spin. He giggled as they spun across the ice. The knight grinned.

"If you think this is fun, wait till the snow clouds move out, I'll show you a new trick Frost and I've been working on. Just don't tell your sister okay?…I'll never hear the end of it." She mumbled the last part under her breath.

A creak made the knights ears perk. She stopped them and stood up straight, listening. It was deathly quiet save for the low murmuring of Elsa and Jarvis, all the normal sounds of day absorbed by the snow around them. Another creak followed by a loud crack sent a jolt of fear through the Knight like a shot lightning. She pulled Olaf into her and grabbed the back of his jacket, throwing him across the ice as far as she could and just in time.

With a violent crack the thin ice beneath her gave way plunging her into the cold dark water. The blast of frigid water shocked her, forcing out the air in her lungs. Her clothes becoming soaked and dragging her down. The water had already numbed her and her vision was going hazy, the cold sapping her of her strength, and it was only a second before her wild flailing stopped.

She was completely unaware of both royals and Jarvis screaming her name as Elsa waved away the ponds ice and Frost dove into the water, grabbing her by her cloak with his teeth and hauling her out of the water.

She gasped, sucking in a cold breath that seared her lungs, but it seemed to stick in her as her muscles locked up.

"Anna!" She could hear the queen but couldn't find the strength to even glance in the direction of the voice. All she was currently aware of was how cold it was and the wispy clouds of her breath coming out in uneven spurts.

"We need to get her out of these clothes and warm." Jarvis grabbed her, hanging her knees over his arm, holding her head against his neck and took off running back to the castle, the queen and prince right behind him.

Her lips were blue and the rest of her skin a light gray blue as well.

She felt like she was outside her body, like everything was slower than normal.

"Take her to our room. Olaf, go get Edgar." Elsa's voice was strained and panicking. Anna wanted to tell her she would be fine, but couldn't find the strength to turn her head, let alone speak, nor was she sure she would be fine.

When they burst through the doors the guard captain set her down on the end of the bed and was quickly pulling off her cloak and tunic while Elsa and Kai whom they had passed in the hall started a fire in the hearth.

Anna was numb to most of the things going on around her, literally and figuratively. She couldn't feel her fingers or toes or the rest of her for that matter and all the noise around her seemed distant, like she was still under the water, she couldn't make her teeth stop clacking.

Elsa let Kai get the now lit fire going into a blaze and grabbed some of Anna's clothes out of the wardrobe and shooed Jarvis away when he had the knight in her underclothes, he turned around as she helped the shaking redhead out of them and into dry ones and wrapped her in the blankets on the bed. She bit her lip, Anna was quaking.

"Jarvis" She called. He picked the knight up and moved her in front of the fire. Elsa crouched next to her and rubbed at her arms and back, trying to get her blood moving. The bedroom doors opened and the queen quickly waved Edgar to the knights' side. He spent only a moment looking her over.

"They only thing to be done right now is to keep her warm and get her body temperature back up. Another body would be even more helpful." Elsa gnawed her lip. She knew she wouldn't be very useful, her body temperature was naturally on the low side because of her magic.

"I'll sit with Anna." Olaf stuck his head in the door. Elsa hesitated a moment but nodded ushering her brother to the knight. They peeled back the blankets and he situated himself in her lap. Anna stiffly wrapped her arms around the albino prince, shaking so hard Olaf rocked with her, and her teeth clicked together incessantly.

"I'd also suggest some ale for her, but for now that's all." Edgar advised and Elsa nodded. Without a word Kai left to fetch the drink for her. Jarvis quietly excused himself and left with the physician.

Elsa pulled her legs underneath her, sitting beside the two. Despite the constant clicking of her teeth Anna tried to smile reassuringly at the queen, but it looked more like a grimace, which caused Elsa's stomach to twist horribly. Looking at the light blue pallor of once sun kissed skin made her heart rise into her throat.

Kai returned and Elsa took the cup in his hands before dismissing him. She helped Anna drink it then settled against her side in front of the fire, deciding she wasn't as warm as Olaf but still much warmer than Anna at the moment.

They sat there for several hour, till the sun had long set, huddled in front of the fire, Elsa occasionally getting up to add wood when it became low.

Olaf was curled up and asleep in the knights arms. At some point the chattering had stopped.

"He's asleep." She croaked. Elsa's head whipped to look at the knight who gave her a small smile and glanced down at the prince. Elsa quickly and silently scooted closer, setting her hands on the knights cheeks, internally sighing in relief to see the blue tint had disappeared.

"How do you feel?" She whispered. Anna gave a slight and tired shrug.

"Tired." She mumbled.

"Then you need to sleep. I'll take Olaf to his room, stay here." She peeled back the blankets and gently scooped the boy into her arms with a huff that made the tired knight grin. He would be too big to carry soon.

When she'd left Anna threw off the blanket and started to stand, but halfway to her feet her strength gave out sending her to her knees and she huffed.

Her muscles were stiff and weak. She started to push herself up again but stopped short. She felt like she was about to collapse face first onto the rug.

"Ugh" She must have stayed that way longer then she thought or Elsa was quicker than usual.

"Anna, I told you not to move!" The queens cool hands wrapped around her back and waist, helping her stand and wobbling over to the bed.

"Actually you said to stay here. I did." She panted and gave a small grin. Elsa made a sound of disapproval as she laid the redhead in the bed and pulled the sheets over her.

"Go to sleep, Anna." She tucked she sheets around her. The knight made a grumbling noise but closed her eyes. Elsa changed into her night dress and climbed in behind her, snuggling into the knights back, relived that she was no longer cold as ice.

 

* * *

 

A strange sound had permeated Elsa's sleep. She blinked groggily, trying to focus he sleepy mind on the noise in her ear. She hummed, forcing her eyes to stay open and immediately sat up.

The sound was coming from Anna, who at some point in the night had kicked off the sheets and was panting heavily, her face was flushed, brows furrowed and she was damp with sweat.

"Oh no, Anna." She pressed a hand to her forehead and jerked back. She was burning up! Elsa flung herself out of the bed and threw open the bedroom doors and spotted the closest maid.

"Quickly, get Edgar!" The maid jumped but nodded and ran down the hall. Elsa hurried back to the knight's side. She dabbed at her sweaty brow with the sleeve of her nightdress. Frost spread across her palm before pressing it against the skin of Anna's wrinkled brow.

Elsa winced at the small hitched breath that escaped the younger woman's lips before she settled again into jerky uneven breaths that made the queens heart jerk, though her face looked slightly less pained then before.

The mustached physician trotted into the room with his bag and the maid lingered in the doorway. Elsa stepped out of the way, despite her reluctance to leave Anna's side even for a moment.

He pulled the thermometer from his bag and slid it under the knights tongue, holding her mouth gently shut.

"When did this start?" He glanced sideways at the queen who couldn't care less at the moment that she was still in her night wear as she wrung her hands.

"I don't know. I just awoke and she was like this. Not too long maybe, her heavy breathing woke me." She explained meeting his eyes but moving quickly back to Anna. She could have been like this most of the night, thought the queen preferred to think that it hadn't started till recently.

"Were going to need cold water and a cloth." He glanced over his shoulder and the maid jumped before disappearing from the doorway.

Edgar pulled out the thermometer and peered at it closely through his spectacles. He hummed, frowning before picking up his things and standing up, nodding to the door. Elsa followed.

"All the sudden changes to her body temperature have made her sick. There's nothing I can do. We simply have to wait and see if she…survives the night. Give her plenty of water and try to bring her fever down." He pushed the glasses further up his nose.

Elsa's frown deepened and it felt like her heart had stopped for a moment, she slowly made herself nod.

"I'll come and check on her again before the days end. If she worsens call for me." He inclined his head before taking his leave. Elsa closed the door behind him before fixing herself back to Anna's side, pressing her frosted palm back against her sweaty brow. It seemed to bring the unconscious woman some comfort. A grumbly sound that maybe was supposed to be words worked past her lips and her eyes moved rapidly beneath her eyelids, clearly fevered dreaming.

A light rapping on the door alerted her to the maids return, she opened the door and took the bowl of water and washcloth she'd brought before sending her off again to find Kai for her.

She dropped the cloth into the water before wringing it out and laying it across her forehead.

"Oh, Anna." She sighed, taking hold of her clammy right hand and running her thumb over the back of it, fingers brushing the warm metal of the Spring Quartz ring she never took off. She glanced at the shining stone. Hopefully it would help.

Olaf timidly peeked inside a few hours later.

Elsa glanced up from the papers spread out on the small table she'd set up beside their bed, unwilling to leave her knights side, unconscious or not.

"Kai said Anna was sick." His voice trembled. Elsa stopped him, coming up to the door.

"Stay out here, Olaf. I don't want too risk you getting sick as well." The Prince frowned and sniffled a little, looking around the queens legs at the heavy breathing knight in the bed. Elsa kneeled down and gathered her brother up in a hug.

"It'll be okay, Olaf. Anna just needs to rest." She hoped the words wouldn't come back to bite her as she ran her fingers through the princes downy soft hair. "You can see her as soon as she's well enough, okay? She felt him nod against her chest. She pulled back and pressed a kiss to his forehead. "Go on to your lessons and I'll see you at dinner."

Once he'd gone she was back at Anna bedside. Pulling the now hot cloth off her forehead and with a quick touch the water in the bowl chilled and she once again wet it before draping it across Anna's face. She was still much too hot. She'd long since given up on trying to keep her covered. She'd just kick them off in feverish fit moments later.

Anna remained dead to the world all the next day and night as well.

On the third morning Elsa was running on nothing but worry and tea that Kai had to nearly pour down there throat.

Anna's fever had broken the day before but she had yet to wake up and coughed often enough that the queen feared she would choke in her sleep.

Sleep.

Elsa desperately wished to sleep, but refused to shut her eyes for more than a few minutes. Despite Kai's wishes, she was adamant that she take care of the ailing woman, plagued by an underlining fear that the moment she stepped away to long Anna would slip away, despite Edgars reassurances that she was doing better just by the virtue that her fever had gone and she survived the first night.

She leaned back in her chair and rubbed her temple, trying to sooth the pounding behind her eyes, the other hand wrapped around Anna's.

Paperwork sat haphazardly across her makeshift desk. She gave up on getting anything done after Anna had a spazzing fit and had to be physically restrained.

Elsa sighed, eyes drooping. She had almost dropped off when the fingers wrapped in hers gave a light squeeze. Hey eyes snapped open and stared into tired teals.

"You're going to worry yourself into an early grave." The redhead rasped. Elsa shot up straight in her chair.

"Anna…how do you feel?" She ran a hand across the knights face.

"Thirsty." She grumbled groggily. Elsa grabbed the cup of water off the table and helped the knight sit up enough to drink. She emptied the cup before falling back onto her pillow with a sigh.

"Better?" Elsa asked setting it down. She nodded.

"How long…have I been asleep?" she croaked, scrubbing the heel of her palm against her eye.

"Two days."

Anna groaned and tried to push herself up but Elsa was quick to push her back to the bed.

"Please Anna, for once, listen to me and stay in bed." She pleaded. She grunted but stayed where she was, too weak to move anymore or argue.

"What happened?" She glanced around the room and spotted the table piled with the queens books and documents.

"Edgar says you took ill from all the extreme changes in your temperature." She explained. Anna huffed and rolled her eyes.

"Where is that little.." Her mouth shut when there was a loud knocking on the door and without waiting opened for the man himself to step inside.

Anna snorted, mumbling something under her breath while Elsa just smirked at her.

"Good afternoon, your majesty. Ah, lady Anna, awake already?" He strode over to the bed. "Most people would no doubt still be unconscious, perhaps the queens magic at work, hmm?" He commented with a chuckle as he began to examine her. Elsa's eyes were drawn to the brilliant green stone on the knights' hand.

Anna noticed and the corner of her lip twitched upwards.

"Something like that I'm sure." She croaked. Edgar hummed but didn't look up from what he was doing.

"I feel confident in saying that you should be well and fully recovered in a few days, Lady Anna and you've passed the point of passing it on to others." He packed his things away and stood by the bed. Anna made a noncommittal sound Elsa wanted to roll her eyes at, but refrained from in the doctors' presence.

"Do try and be more careful, Lady Anna. You alone keep me staffed here." He laughed. Elsa quickly showed him out before he could see the knights glare.

Before she could close the door Olaf was pushing his way into the room.

One look at the knight, sitting herself up against the headboard cause a squeal of excitement as he bound onto the bed.

"Olaf!" Elsa frowned as her brother flung himself into Anna's lap causing the knight to chuckle but it turned into a small coughing fit.

"You're awake!" He grinned broadly at her and threw his arms around her neck.

"But still sick, so you shouldn't be in here." Elsa cut off anything Anna was bout to say. The prince frowned, bottom lip jutting out but for once Elsa would not be moved.

Anna cleared her throat with a small cough.

"You heard the little tortur-…" Elsa fixed her with a glare "…Edgar…no one is going to get sick from me." She wrapped an arm around Olaf and tucked him in against her right side, where he snuggled against her, eyes closing.

"Anna…" She sighed. Anna just grunted and held open her left arm.

"You look exhausted. I'm positive you haven't slept." She smiled knowingly. "Come here."

The queen hesitated only a minute before joining them in the bed and curling up on the knights unoccupied side, draping an arm across her waist while Anna's curled around her shoulders.

"Just for a few minutes." She tried to stand firm but already the heat emanating from the knight was lulling her to sleep.

Anna just hummed, eyes closed and leaned her head atop Elsa's.

Within 5 minutes all 3 were fast asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you haven't noticed I take liberties with my prompts.
> 
> "Forever in Your Service"! I love this title! May I suggest that Elsa and Anna having a snowball fight with Olaf and Frost?
> 
> icy power on each side should be fun? But I don't know, they might end up all three against Anna? Lol
> 
> Suggested by Johsi32
> 
> Oh please please please! Write a one-shot for FIYS where Anna is sick (like sick sick) and Elsa take care of her. Something like: the bravest Arendelle's knight is defeat by a fever xD – Suggested by Anonymous
> 
> Sorry if the snowball fight was a lil short Johsi32. It's hard to write it convincingly when one character has magic snow powers and would pwn your ass in less than 5 minutes.


	5. Niece

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is a birthday present for the awesome and talented Shishiyoukai on DA
> 
> As always ideas and prompts that help me write this shot:
> 
> you should do something where Anna comes into contact with a baby or something - maybe Kristoffs? That would be hysterical - Guest reviewer
> 
> In 'Forever In Your Service' could you have Elsa and Anna talk about children? I get that they're both women but Elsa has Ice Powers it's not crazy to think that one of them could get pregnant. Maybe magic could play a role it it? They already have Elsas bracelet, maybe there's other types of magic out there.
> 
> ~aqueenthatisfrozen Tumblr

"I want it to go on record, that I do not think this is a good idea. She's never been away from us before." Conna sighed as she handed her 2 and half year old daughter over to her grinning sister-in-law reluctantly.

The 30 year old knight took the little blonde into her arms and snorted.

"I'm not going to lose her or anything…again" Anna defended as she held her niece protectively in the crook of her left arm, said child began playing with the medals pinned to the uniforms chest.

Conna didn't look convinced.

"Just remember to make her take a nap after she has her midday meal and to be in bed by 7 or she'll be cranky and sleep the next day."

Anna just nodded as her sister-in-law gave her instructions on taking care of the 2 year old girl. Trying to remember it all, though she was certain she wouldn't

Kristoff wrapped an arm around his wife's shoulders and smiled, giving her a reassuring squeeze.

"Come on, Conna. Julia loves her aunt Anna. Don't you my baby?" He leaned down and cooed at his daughter, who giggled and clapped two chubby hands against his stubbled cheeks.

" Love daddy" She giggled. Kristoff leaned back and grinned at his wife.

"See?" He set a hand on his hip. Conna rolled her eyes leaning in and kissed the small blondes cheek.

"Be good." she smiled and the green eyed toddler giggled.

"I be Good" She repeated. Conna climbed into the carriage and Kristoff gave his sister a side hug before kissing his daughter.

"We'll be back in 3 days. Try not to lose your niece before then." He chuckled. Anna rolled her eyes.

"Once. She crawled away from me once, and she was only under the table! You all act like I left her in the woods." She flung out a hand in exasperation. Kristoff just chuckled and kissed his sisters forehead.

"See you in a few days. Say hello and goodbye to Elsa for me." He climbed into the carriage and it began moving away from the castle.

"Say bye bye." Anna cooed clenching and unclenching her hand in an exaggerated goodbye. Julia repeated the action.

"Bye bye" She called.

A shadow passed over them and Anna glanced up, shading her eyes with her free hand and grinned, shaking her head. He had better not get caught.

Anna leaned down and grabbed the bag of the 2 year olds belongings and started back inside.

"Let's go say hi to Aunt Elsa, yea?" The girl smiled

"Ant Elsa" She repeated with a giggle. Anna chuckled and nodded. She stopped a servant in the hall and handed him the bag.

"Would you drop this off in the spare room next to mine?" He nodded quickly.

"Of course, your highness." She thanked him and he quickly trotted off.

"Highness!" Julia clapped her hands. The knight's head whipped to stare down at the girl.

"No, no, no. Aunt. Anna. Lady. Anything but that. Literally anything, please." She begged. Her niece didn't seem too interested in what she was saying and her attention drifted to her fingers to play with the gold wedding band on her ring finger.

Anna sighed as she continued up the stairs and down the hall to Elsa's study, boots clicking rhythmically against the polished wooden floors.

"Let's just go see Aunt Elsa. Shall we?" She rapped her knuckles against the wood a few times before going ahead and opening the door.

The same sight greeted Anna that had the majority of days over the past 10 years. Elsa straight back in her chair, long braid draped over her shoulder and eyes glancing back and forth across the papers on her desk, pen clutched in her right hand.

"And there's Aunt Elsa, working too hard." Anna clucked making the blonde toddler giggle and hold her arms out for the other blonde to hold her.

"Not everyone's title is ornamental." Elsa glanced up from her work and smiled, standing up and moving around the desk and taking the now fussing child from her wives hands.

"Not all of us want, said titles." She humphed. "And I do stuff all the time."

"Aunt Anna is so cranky, isn't she little one." The queen nuzzled her cheek against the fine flaxen hair atop their nieces head. The girl nodded.

"I am not cranky." Anna grumbled, plopping herself onto the settee next to the queens desk. Elsa rolled her eyes with a smirk as she settled next to Anna.

"Where are Kristoff and Conna?" She glanced at her wife curiously as she ran her fingers through the toddlers golden hair.

"They left." She said fiddling with the cuff of her jacket.

"They left their child?" She blinked, confused. Anna finally looked at her, one copper brow hiked up.

"Yes, Elsa." She said slowly. "For me to take care of her, they had to leave her here when they left." She pronounced it all out slowly. The queen glared at her.

"You know what I mean, Anna." She sighed. "Why are you taking care of her?"

"Oh, did I not mention that we're taking care of her for 3 days while they're gone for business?" She smiled sheepishly at the queen. Elsa pursed her lips.

"No, no you did not." She said shifting Julia on her lap. "Well, after she leaves I'll need your full attention to help plan the ball" She said leaning back and throwing a leg across the knights lap.

"Ball?" Her consort blinked back. Elsa sighed.

"You forgot, didn't you?" She accused. Anna jolted, looking panicked.

"What? No! How could I forget? It's…is it our anniversary already..?" She mumbled the last bit. Elsa rolled her eyes.

"Our anniversary isn't for another 4 months. Try again." She smirked. Anna hummed thoughtfully.

"I knew that….hmm…Your birthday was last month…and mine and Olaf's are in the summer so…I have no idea." She gave up throwing up her hands. Elsa sighed.

"Winter Ball. Ring any bells?" She asked. Anna continued to stare blankly back. Elsa threw her head back and sighed loudly making their niece giggle from her place playing with the sparkling cape of the queen's dress.

"Anna you got fitted for a new uniform for it last week." She smiled fondly but exasperatedly at her wife. Realization dawned on Anna's face and she smacked the heel of her fist into her open palm.

"Is THAT what that was for?" She asked. Elsa Just shook her head.

"Yes, darling. That is what it was for. You didn't even ask when they started measuring you and putting you in clothes?" She laughed. Anna shrugged.

"Please. I've had too have so many clothes fittings for parties and balls and special visits." She counted off on her fingers. "I don't even ask anymore. I just put on what they give me, stand still then leave." She huffed, blowing a bang out of her eyes.

"Well, I'm reminding you now. It's in 4 days and I need you to help." She stood up and kissed the toddlers forehead before setting her in Anna's lap and sitting back down at her desk.

"What did you want me to do?" She set Julia on the floor in front of her.

"Do whatever the staff needs you to, okay the menu organize security...help keep your brother out of trouble." She shuffled through a stack of yellowed papers.

"Which brother?" She walked over and leaned her palms against the wood. Icy blues glanced up.

"Both of course. Though I'm sure Conna will be able to handle Kristoff." She smiled. "I just need you to do as I've asked and play my pretty princess" She pinched the knight's right cheek a little roughly.

Anna swatted her hand away with a light growl.

"Fine, but don' call me that." She said leaning back and crossing her arms over her chest. Elsa glanced off to the side and set her chin in her palm.

"Darling"

Anna looked at her curiously.

"Where is Julia?" Anna whipped around to find the place in front of the settee where she'd left her niece empty.

"Shit!" She yelled running out the open study door in a panic. Elsa smirked shaking her head and reaching under the desk where the girl was sitting under her legs giggling quietly.

"Aunt Anna is silly isn't she?" Elsa laughed picking the girl up and setting her in her lap.

Julia giggled. "She's silly" She agreed with a vigorous nod.

Anna came running back into the room.

"By the gods Elsa help me find-" She stared down at the giggling girl in the Queens lap then dropped back onto the settee with a groan.

"Well that took 5 years off my life, thanks" She groaned, staring up at the ceiling, one hand clutched into the fabric over her heart. "Don't tell Conna…" Elsa shook her head.

"Speaking of missing children, have you seen Olaf today? He was supposed to attend a meeting with me, but I couldn't find him after breakfast." She frowned, leaning back in her chair and threading her gingers through liquid sunshine hair.

It took every ounce of willpower she had to suppress the grin that threatened to split her face.

"Yes, I saw him this morning; do you want me to go get him?" She asked. Elsa shook her head.

"No, I'll see him at dinner. I just don't know what the problem is lately. Usually Olaf is good about showing up to his lessons." She glanced down a bopped her nieces' nose with a finger making her giggle. "Do you know what's wrong with Uncle Olaf, sweetie?"

"Yes, aunt Elsa." She nodded but then stopped and seemed to think before frowning and shaking her head. Elsa giggled at the adorable little frown on her face.

"Julia might not, but I might be able to enlighten you, Snowflake." She smirked. Elsa's attention turned fully to her wife.

"Oh?" pale brows rose up in question. Anna hummed an affirmative.

"Mhmm, I'll give you a clue. It's 16, freckled and strawberry-blonde." She grinned toothily as the queens brows disappeared into her hairline.

"Ah…really. Are you sure?" She asked. Anna smiled.

"Well I did see him kiss her if that's anything to go by." She smirked as the queen looked completely unsure how to handle the news.

"He kissed Emma? What…what if that's not the only thing going on…?" Elsa held a hand up to her mouth. Anna laughed.

"Relax, love. He's 15, we…I…gave him that talk when he was 5, and it's not like a maid caught them in one of the linen closets." She waved a hand and Elsa groaned loudly.

"Anna" She sighed.

"That maid was…quite surprised." She chuckled while Elsa burned red. "Don't worry about Olaf and Emma. I honestly don't think he'd really know what to do with her if she gave him the chance." She shrugged.

"Was that supposed to make me feel better?" She asked tiredly, reaching up to rub her temple. Again the knight shrugged.

"More of an observation, I'm just saying that you shouldn't be surprised if another Bjorgman sneaks into the royal family in 4 years or so." She grinned standing up and reaching over to pluck Julia out of her wives lap and hitched her to her hip.

Elsa gave an unqueenly snort. "You didn't sneak in, Anna. You plowed your way in, the same way you do everything, bullheaded."

"And yet it took me 7 years..." She drawled. Elsa smirked.

"Most people would have given up after 2 or 3 I think." She propped her chin up in her palm gazing up at her redheaded wife. Anna smirked.

"I'm persistent." She agreed. "Though, you were worth the wait." She smirked leaning down to kiss the platinum blond queen.

"Ewww…like momma and papa" Julia made a face. Both women pulled apart laughing just as the bells starting ringing signaling that it was noon.

"Are you going to come have lunch with Julia and me?" She asked straightening back up. Elsa glanced at the papers on her deck for a moment. Nothing that couldn't wait a while.

"I suppose I could find some time." She smiled and stood, walking around her desk.

"We'd best be on our best behavior, Julia. The Queen has seen fit to grace us with her presence." Anna gave a dramatic flourish. Elsa bumped her with her hip.

"You and your theatrics." She sighed as they left her study and headed down the hall. Anna grinned.

"I'm just making life interesting." She defended. Elsa couldn't not agree.

"You do, that much is certain, but I'd have to say it's the frequency at which you get injured, that keeps me on my toes, not your flair for the dramatic." She smirked. Anna snorted, but didn't argue.

Anna did her best to keep herself and their niece clean through lunch but only succeeded in making an even bigger mess on the table when she dropped her elbow into her bowl of soup, spilling it in her lap and making her yelp.

"Fuck, that's hot!" She jumped, dancing away from the table and knocking over her chair while trying to wipe the scalding liquid off her legs. A servant rushed forward trying to help the squirming knight. Elsa sighed silently and Julia clapped her hands, giggling around her spoon as soup dribbled down on her face and clothes.

Anna snatched the towel from the young new servant trying to help.

"Stop! I got it, thank you!" She managed to grit out as she wiped the scalding broth off her lap and stomach. Elsa smiled apologetically at him as he scurried away from the irritated princess-consort.

"Are you alright?" The queen asked when she stopped hopping around in a panic. The knight nodded, unbuttoning her jacket and pulling up her undershirt. The skin across her stomach was an angry red that disappeared below the waist of her trousers. Elsa beckoned her over and laid a hand against the red skin.

"That's cold." Anna hissed but relaxed under the queens icy touch. Elsa just rolled her eyes.

"That is the point." She pulled back and let Anna drop her shirt back down and button her jacket.

"I swear, you get more and more attitude the older you get." She tossed the towel in her hand onto the table the queen smiled and shrugged.

"Where could I have picked it up from I wonder?" She asked leveling her gaze on Anna as she sat back in her seat and grabbed her cup pointedly ignoring her wives look as she took a drink.

"fuck" Anna choked, spitting out her water and both women turned to look at the child in the chair next to her smiling proudly of herself.

"fucking hot." She smiled up at Anna and held out her spoon.

"No! No don't say that, your mother will never let me see you again if she hears that!" Anna cried.

Elsa covered her mouth with her hand to hide the growing smile on her face. She'd warned Anna of her language habits many a time over the years when such expletives had worked their way out of Olaf's mouth.

The smile immediately dropped off the child's face and tears began to well up in her eyes, mouth contorting.

'N-ne-never?" She hiccupped just before bursting into a screeching ball of tears. That made everyone jump.

"No,no, shhh. Don't cry." Anna hauled her niece up against her chest and patted her back, smearing soup across the chest of her jacket. The girl only continued to wail in her arms.

Elsa could see the panic mounting on her wives face as she tried to soothe the child. The knight had no previous experience with anything younger than 5 until her niece was born, even then Olaf a more well behaved child and when Julia would cry Anna would simply hand her back to Kristoff or Conna but that wasn't an option now.

"No, Julia don't cry. I'm sure I could sneak past your mother, papa would never not let me see you." Anna had no idea what she was doing. Sure she knew how children worked in theory, but not having any herself nor growing up with any made the divide between theory and application seem that much wider.

"Anna" Elsa called her quietly. She glanced at her, eyebrows vanishing behind her bangs. Eyes clearly saying that anything Elsa would say would be welcome help. "Just relax and hum." Copper brows fell back down meeting between her eyes. "Just trust me." Elsa assured.

Anna sighed through her nose but said nothing and merely started humming into her nieces' ear and rubbing her back. A few minutes later the wailing cries had slowed and quieted into gurgles and hiccups. Anna sighed in relief and sent her wife a questioning glance. Elsa just shrugged.

"It's alright now. No more tears Julia, okay?" The girl sniffled and nodded.

"Okay." She agreed quietly.

"You two are wearing more lunch then you actually ate." Elsa pointed out when Anna set the girl back down on her lap. Anna glanced down and frowned. Dark stains covered the once crisp clean jacket. The front of Julia's red and gold trimmed winter dress was even worse off, but her face was also covered, and somehow in her hair.

"Okay." She stood up, holding Julia at arm length. "Someone needs a bath." Julia began to thrash and squirm at that declaration, causing the knight to nearly drop her.

"No!" She wailed. Anna clutched her to her chest, trying to be gentle but keep her from thrashing, but still got a fist in the throat.

She gagged while trying to lean her head back away from the tiny flying fists. She was to busy trying to breath hold the toddler and not get punched that she didn't notice Elsa had stood up from the table and was making her way over till she was pulling the girl out of her arms, holding her at arms length.

Anna sighed rubbing at her throat.

"Julia Janine Bjorgman." Her fussing came to a near screeching halt at the scolding tone of Elsa's voice along with her middle name.

"You will go and take your bath…"

"And nap." Anna threw in.

"And your nap, and you will behave if you want to have dessert at all while you're here." The threat took all the fight out of Julia and she nodded glumly, eyes watering. Without a word she pulled the child in to her chest and turned, leaving the dining hall. Anna followed mutely behind the queen who stopped and directed a maid to bring bath water to the spare room beside theirs.

They were silent they reached the room. After the tub was filled Elsa stripped the girl of her soiled clothes and set her in the water.

Her sullen attitude didn't last long as she and Anna got into a splash fight that got far bigger then Elsa would have liked, resulting in water nearly to the door and an equally soaked wife.

"Anna, please. We can only bathe one child at a time." She smirked when annoyed teal eyes turned to her. Anna stuck her tongue out, only proving the queens point. "Just wash her hair. There's soup in it." She giggled. Anna grimaced and worked the soap into Julia's hair while she splashed around throwing up more water. Elsa stood back by the door watching them away from the water.

"Okay" Anna wrapped the towel around Julia and carried her out into the bedroom. "Now I just need to get you dry and dressed and asleep…." Anna felt tired just listing the things she still had to do before she could rest.

Elsa poked around in her bag before pulling out a dark green dress and laid it on the bed for Anna who smiled gratefully as she dried the squirming girl and wrestled her into her clothes and then the bed.

It was only 5 minutes before she had dozed off.

Anna sighed silently as they left the room.

"I think I need a nap." She grumbled walking into their bedroom to change her soaked uniform out for some trousers and a gold and green tunic.

"Well you do whatever you want, darling. I have work waiting for me." She kissed the knights cheek. "I'll see you at dinner." She Anna nodded and once Elsa had gone she turned and made her way out to the stables. Already knowing who she'd find.

She could hear the hushed voices before she even walked into the stables.

"Hey, Olaf." She called. All the dragons looked up when Anna walked in. Frost tramped around excitedly, nuzzling her over the gate. She giggled, scratching under his chin.

"Hello to you as well of course, my old friend." He chirped in reply.

"Anna." A voice squawked. Olaf came trotting out around Tulvir where he'd been hidden from view. The tall gangly 15 year old smiled nervously. Bits of hay sticking out of his snowy mop.

Anna gave him a knowing smirk. "Hello Emma." She called. There was a pause before a strawberry blonde head poked out from behind Tulvir.

"Hi, Anna." She gave a small wave to her sister. Bits of hay falling out of her hair.

"You had better head home before mother gets worried…Kristoff and Conna have already left." She couldn't wipe the smirk off her face as she spoke. Emma nodded.

I'll see you later, Olaf." She smiled before hurrying past her sister with a squeaking goodbye.

"What are you doing here? He asked, cheeks slightly pink.

"Well for one, I saw you riding Tulvir this morning, you know you aren't allowed to ride by yourself, and you missed a lesson with Elsa and she isn't happy about it." She crossed her arms and gave him a stern look, or tried to. Scolding and stern looks were all Elsa's thing.

"Ooooh, the meeting." He slapped his palm against his forehead. "I forgot all about that."

"Obviously. I won't say anything about your flying, but if she asks me I'm not going to lie to her. So don't get caught. " He nodded.

"I wouldn't ask you to lie to Elsa for me…" He leaned against the wall.

"Good. You can face her at dinner. Good luck." She chuckled and turned to go.

"Wait. Anna." She stopped. "Uhm…can I…ask you something?" He twitched nervously, voice cracking.

"You can always talk to me Olaf. What is it?" She tried to ease whatever was making him nervous.

"How do you…how can I…uhh.." He stuttered. Anna just blinked, concerned.

"You're going to have to try that again…" She scratched the back of her head. He sighed.

"How do you...impress a girl?" He finally asked.

"You mean Emma?" She smirked. Olaf twitched.

"I didn't say it was Emma!" He defended

"What other girls do you know?" Anna snorted.

He fumbled with his words hands making gestures. "You and Elsa are girls." He croaked, voice pitching.

"Elsa is your sister so to you that does not count, and I am your sisters wife, your sister-in-law. So I don't count either. You mean Emma." She smirked as his face reddened.

"Fine, yes I mean Emma. How do I impress Emma?" He pleaded.

"You're still a little young to try to be impressing any girls…" Before he could protest like she knew he would she held up a hand. "But…as my only brother-in-law and one I have partially raised I have to help you, but first I want you to make me a promise." She said seriously. He perked up and nodded.

"Sure, what?" He tilted his head waiting.

"Your sister has an unfounded fear she'll be an aunt much sooner then she should be. So promise me that nothing but kissing will be going on between you two until you're at least 18."

Olaf's pale face went impossibly red

"What?! Anna nothing is.." She hushed him with a hand across his mouth.

"I don't want denials or excuses. I want your word. Swear it Olaf." He grumbled under his breath when she removed her hand.

"I...Crown Prince Olaf of Arendelle swear on my life and title that nothing…but kissing will happen between me and anyone until I am at least 18." His face burned from the tips of his ears down his neck. "Happy?" he grumbled.

"Elsa will be, yes." She nodded. He became even redder if possible.

"Have you tried being…romantic?" She asked.

"How though?" He sighed.

"Well…when I was trying to empress Elsa before I was even a knight I took her for a ride on Frost under the full moon. A few years ago she told me that she thought it was very romantic." Olaf hummed in thought.

"I…guess I could try that…the full moon is in a few days...yeah. Thanks, Anna." She nodded. But he stopped her again before she could take a step.

"Want to go for a ride?" He wheedled. She grinned.

 

* * *

 

They were nearly late for dinner when they came bounding into the dining hall where Elsa was already sitting with Julia in an empty seat that had been pulled up next to her at the head of the table.

"Where have you two been?"

"We went for a ride…had a…delay.." Anna searched for the right word.

"Anna fell off Frost." Olaf said as he took his place to his sisters right and smiled at his sisters niece. She giggled and gave a shy wave.

"Traitor." Anna growled. Blue eyes turned on her expectantly. "It wasn't far…and he caught me. So don't worry." She tried to placate her wife.

"Anna, I can never not worry about you." She sighed before wiping Julia's face before any of her meal could stain a second dress.

Anna was happy to let Elsa take her for a bit. She was so much better with Julia then herself.

The toddler provided enough distraction that Olaf was able to slip away after dinner without a scolding for missing his lesson of the day.

Anna took the drowsy child from Elsa as they left the dining room. She was nearly asleep until Anna laid her in the bed and kissed her forehead. The girl kissed her back sloppily.

"Good night, Julia." The girl mumbled night back and Anna left to undress in their room. Elsa leaned down and kissed the girls cheek.

"Aunt Elsa." She whispered. "Do the magic..." She pleaded. Elsa smiled and leaned down at the beds edge and held out her upturned palm. Julia watched enraptured as a light blue glow turned into a miniature snow fall in the queens hand.

"Pretty" She mumbled, watching for a few minutes until she was out like a candle.

 

* * *

 

Anna only just managed to survive the next two days. She was exhausted. She had no idea a two year old had so much energy.

It was already dark and Julia was out cold in her mother's arms. As she stepped back into the carriage. Kristoff took his daughters bag from anna with a smile.

"Thanks for watching her Anna. Mother needed a break. I hope she wasn't too much trouble?" He asked as he set the bag in the carriage.

"No, not really…but…lets just say I'm glad I have Elsa and that you two don't leave town often." She smiled tiredly. Kristoff chuckled and nodded.

'Right. Well, thank you again. Tell Elsa thank you for me as well." He gave her a quick squeeze before climbing back into the carriage and pulling away.

Anna sighed in relief as she walked back into the castle, gates closing behind her for the night. The trip to her room seemed to take forever.

Elsa was changing into her night dress when Anna walked in and started pulling off her boots.

"I love Julia...but I'm glad she'd gone home." Anna let out a relieved sigh as she pulled out her braids and gave a shake, sending copper hair flying.

"I guess you're just not used to this kind of excitement." The queen laughed quietly as she unwound her own ornate hairstyle and braid, sitting down at the vanity.

"Excitement? I can handle excitement fine. How quickly you forget the time we nearly drowned coming back from Weselton or the revolt in Castillion or the time I nearly killed that Prince by threatening to throw him off the balcony. Oh, oh let us not forget Olaf's 13th birthday. " Anna laughed, plopping back onto their bed, arms out and bright copper locks fanned out around her head.

Elsa rolled her eyes silently at herself in the mirror with every incident Anna recalled as she ran a brush through the long platinum strands.

"It's not excitement it's just…children." She threw her hands out as if that explained it, and in a way it did. "I would have made an awful parent." Elsa stopped and looked at her redheaded wife laying across their bed.

"Anna" She asked, eyes moving down to the brush in her fingers. Anna hummed.

"Have you ever…thought about children?" There was a beat of silence.

"What do you mean?" Elsa could hear the confusion in her question. The bed squeaked as she rolled herself over on her stomach and folded her arms in front of her, teal eyes gazing curiously at the back of the queen's head.

"Like…having children. What it would be like to have one of our own." She clarified. Anna laid her head across her folded arms.

"I…I don't know. I suppose it's crossed my mind occasionally." She gave a half shrug, burying her nose into her arms. "Have you?"

"Yes" Elsa turned around to look at her. Copper brows rose up, silently encouraging her to speak. "Maybe too much, considering it is impossible, but yes. I've often thought about it over the years." Elsa confessed quietly. Anna pushed herself up into a sitting position and patted the space next to her. Elsa wandered over and settled onto the bed next to Anna.

"It's silly" She tried to brush it off.

"It's not silly, Elsa." Anna assured softly, wrapping an arm around her back

"It really is, because no matter how much or little I think about it the reality is still the same. You and I could never have one of our own." She glanced at Anna before turning arctic blues on the expanse of starry sky out the window.

"Do you want one?" Anna asked, it was all she could do. In all the time they'd been together Elsa had never even hinted that she may want children. Olaf had always fulfilled the need for an heir but it had never occurred to her that Elsa may just want to be a mother for the virtue of being a mother.

"I don't know, really. I've just…thought about it…when I'm alone in my office and my mind wanders I sometimes find myself imagining…A tiny strawberry-blonde with pudgy freckled cheeks and wide teal eyes." She trailed off quietly.

"Blue."

Elsa blinked, turning to look into the very shade of teal she'd imagined.

What?" She asked confused. Anna smiled.

"I always imagined any kids we had would have your eyes. That beautiful icy blue, though unfortunately for them they would be as horribly freckled as me." She wrinkled her very freckled nose.

Elsa smiled and reached over to pinch one of said freckled cheeks.

"Hush, I love your freckles." Anna grimaced but let the queen have her fill of pinching before letting go and placing a kiss on the same cheek. "I'd want every single one of them to have them."

"Whoa, how many are we talking about here?" She was almost afraid to ask. Elsa giggled.

"Just two at the most. I don't think you could handle any more than that, and depending on who they take after I doubt I could either." A red brow cocked upwards.

"What is that supposed to mean? She asked indignantly. Letting go of the queen to cross her arms over her chest. Elsa smiled.

"Nothing, darling, just that…well, between your ability to injure yourself on a regular basis and your…unique personality…which you know I love, they might just be a bit…difficult…" She finished.

"Oh, they could potentially have magical ice powers but inheriting my personality is what bothers you?" Teal eyes narrowed.

"Yes, especially if they had both." They stared at each other silently before bursting into laughter.

"I feel bad for these kids and they don't even exist." The knight chuckled as Elsa held her cheeks and kissed her between giggling.

"I don't. You'd be a wonderful parent, Anna. Who else would teach them things I've already forbidden them to do or to sneak out of the castle to ride dangerous flying animals." She laughed.

"Well it won't be easy, I'm sure they'll have inherited all your grace and poise but also your ability to be reserved and humorless." She poked the blondes side. Elsa jerked back and slapped at the offending appendage.

'I have a sense of humor." She defended. Anna leaned against her and grunted.

"Our definitions of 'humor' are very different, Snowflake." She laughed quietly. Elsa huffed.

"Oh, I forgot. Thank you. For all the help with Julia. How did you learn to make them obey that way?" She asked. Elsa smiled.

"She's my niece too, but your welcome and Olaf was the same way you know. Our parents died when he was that age. I spent a lot of time taking care of him. I didn't want him to be raised by the staff." She stood up and walked back over to the vanity to finish brushing out her hair.

"So I guess it will be a few years before I can handle her by myself then.." She thought aloud. Elsa glanced curiously at her over her shoulder.

"What do you mean?"

"Well we didn't meet till he was 5. A 5 year old I can handle." She jerked a thumb at herself "We basically raised him from there onward 5 and after I know what to do." She shrugged.

"He certainly has absorbed enough of your…quirks and mannerisms." She gave a breathy laugh, picturing the albino teenager talking nonstop and flinging his arms about for emphasis as he sometimes did.

"Acts like me looks like you and we raised him. Olaf is kinda like our kid." She chuckled at the thought. Elsa stopped, brush midway through her platinum tresses.

"He...is...isn't he? The person Olaf is becoming is because of both of us." She looked over her shoulder at Anna who gave a shrug and smiled.

Then as if summoned by his name a large silvery albino dragon flew past the bedroom window causing Elsa to shriek. Olaf atop his back with Emma clutching to him for dear life. Anna jumped up and threw open the window.

The flew away from the window, semi crash landing atop the walls that separated the courtyard from outside.

"Olaf!" Anna shouted. Elsa stood next to her looking out worriedly.

"Were okay." His cracking voice called out across the courtyard. Both woman sighed in relief.

'What are you doing!?" Anna nearly screeched. There was a pregnant pause.

"You said night flights were romantic." He squeaked back. Elsa narrowed her eyes at the redhead who slapped her palm against her face.

"Crashing is not romantic Olaf!" She called then noticed the queen glaring daggers at her. "a-and you're not supposed to be flying alone at night!" She tacked on.

Elsa sighed

"It seems there still some raising and growing up left to do by both of you." She mumbled as Anna leaned out the window. She sighed and closed it before walking across the room and pulled on her trousers and boots.

"I'll go check on them and make sure there okay and Tulvir goes back to the stables." She grunted as she pulled her tunic over her head. The corners of the queens lips twitched upwards in a small content smile.

"Anna" She stopped in front of the door and looked back at her.

"After you make sure he hasn't hurt himself or Emma and Tulvir, do you want to go on a night ride?"

It took a moment before Elsa's words sank in and she grinned.

"Sure"

Elsa stopped halfway to the door before running back and grabbing Anna's old worn blue tunic and pulled it over her night dress before following her wife out of the room.


	6. Doubt

Olaf sighed. He wasn't really a fan of the kinds of parties they had in the castle. Rather than playing with Tulvir in the stables he had to play the proper prince for all the visiting foreigners. He glanced around the bustling ballroom. Large well fed lords and equally pompously dressed ladies were gulping down wine and food while vying for his sisters attention.

It had been semi tolerable until Emma had to leave with Kristoff. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed over his chest. He already knew if Elsa saw him he would be scolded for the behavior. She'd say he was acting like Anna. That made him smile though, only Anna could get away with half the things she did.

They were so wrapped around each other it almost wasn't funny. Almost.

Seeing the Dragon Knight of Arendelle shake with fear when her angry blonde wife came calling was something you had to see to believe. The reverse was true as well. Himself and Elsa were the only people the copper headed knight very rarely got angry at but when she did Elsa couldn't stop saying sorry and he couldn't stop himself from crying when she yelled at him.

Not a lot of crying...just a little...really.

"You look like you're thinking really hard about something." He jumped, spinning to face the Dragon Knight herself. He smiled up at her and scratched the back of his head.

"Oh, not really." The 14 year old prince shrugged with a small grin. Anna crossed her arms and smirked.

"I'm sure. You know if she catches you all slouchy and hiding in the corner she's not going to be happy." She nudged him with her shoulder.

"This is so boring though." He mumbled slouching further. Anna smirked but gave a nod.

"No arguments here...i know for fact that some of the younger nobility are out in the courtyard. I'm sure i could keep your sister from noticing if you went elsewhere." She whispered into the albino prince's ear.

"Thanks, Anna." He grinned at her before sneaking away. Anna watched him go with a smile before heading over to her wife.

The lord gave a bow to the queen before turning and walking away, Anna taking her place beside the blonde.

"Where have you been?" She slid her arm through the crook of Anna's arm

"Just playing nice with all the important people." She sighed. Elsa resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

"Good. Have you seen Olaf? I know he was a little down when your sister had to leave."

"Yeah, he's fine. Don't worry." She smiled and squeezed the hand wrapped around her elbow.

Olaf nodded to the guards as he passed, trotting into the lit courtyard where 3 boys dressed in noble garb were. 2 about his age one blonde with green eyes and the other had jet black hair and equally dark eyes, his skin a deep olive tone. The last one, maybe a couple years older had slicked back brown hair and yellow toned eyes. They were huddled together, talking.

He unconsciously straightened his jacket before he walked over to them, clearing his throat.

"Hi" He smiled, buck teeth on display. The three straightened.

"Prince Olaf." They all bowed, the older one a little reluctantly maybe. Olaf smiled nervously He never liked being referred to by his title but by people his own age it seemed really strange.

"Just Olaf is okay." He assured. The two younger boys relaxed and smiled easily.

The blonde smiled, green eyes large and bright.

"I'm Wulf of Arendelle. My father is the portmaster." He gave another small bow. Olaf scoured his brain and yes he had seen the blonde around once or twice, probably at the dock.

"I'm Julian Of Piscola. It's a pleasure." He smiled widely, showing off to rows of misaligned but white teeth.

The older boy crossed his arms over his chest, looking bored. "Alxir of Castillion" He gruffed.

"I guess that you guys weren't enjoying the party either?" He asked. Wulf and Julian shook there heads.

"Not really. My father won't let me drink." Wulf grumbled dejectedly. Julian nodded in agreement.

"That's because you two are children." Alxir scoffed.

"Anna and Elsa won't let me drink yet either." Olaf piped in.

"Oh, what's the Dragon Knight like?" Julian asked, wide eyed.

"Kind of funny from what my father says." Wulf grinned. Olaf chuckled and nodded.

"She is, but amazing too. She's been teaching me how to sword fight since i was very young and last year she finally started teaching how to ride my dragon, Tulvir." All three boys looked suitably impressed.

"What are they like?" Julian asked in wonder.

"The dragons?" He cocked his head. Julian nodded.

"Yeah, I've seen them, but I've never been close." Wulf agreed.

"Why don't you take us to see them?" Alxir suggested with a grin.

"um, i don't…" The albino hesitated. He wasn't really supposed to take people to see the dragons without Anna. Athor wasn't fond of strangers or anyone but Henrick and the other dragons.

"We'll be quick, we just want to see." Alxir wheedled. Wulf and Julian turned pleading eyes to the prince.

"I suppose it would be okay…" He motioned for the other three to follow him as he led them out and around the castle to the stables. Because of the rarity and often ferociousness of the beasts that lived in the castle stables at least one guard was usually posted to watch over them. Especially after a couple of would be thieves had tried to steal the pride of Arendelle's dragon knight and father of beasts; Frost.

They'd been mauled nearly beyond recognition by the normally docile Frost and Jura.

To protect them and the citizens(thieves or no) the guard position over the stables had been put in place.

Due to the party and abundance of important guests all the guards on at minor positions, such as the stables had been moved to the ball room and adjoining halls, allowing the boys in easily.

"Over here." Olaf skipped over a stall as a long ice blue neck reared back till an equally icy colored head was looking down on them, spectral eyes, glowing in the darkness.

The other boys froze but Olaf grinned and grabbed the scaly head. Tulvir trilled happily as Olaf scratched his head.

"It's okay he's friendly." The prince grinned as the lizard nuzzled his head against him. "This is Tulvir." He introduced.

Wulf sidled slowly closer, unsure. He reached out a hand and Tulvir snorted. The other 3 boys jumped and Olaf laughed. When the dragon made no other movements Wulf inched yet closer till his hand lay over smooth cool scales.

Tulvir pushed his snout further into the boys hand and he grinned tentatively petting the icy beast. Julian moved forward and ran his fingers over the thick muscled neck. Alxir watched from the a few feet away.

"He's cold…and big." Julian observed. Wulf nodded.

"Yeah, but where..." Before he could finish the sentence another head peaked over the stall wall. A large and steel blue colored head with glowing jade eyes and a pair of fangs that jutted up over his upper lip.

"That's Jura." Olaf smiled as the head leaned down to be petted. The boys scratched and fawned over him. "He belongs to Jarvis, the captain of the guard."

"Where is Lady Anna's Dragon? I've heard about him." Julian glanced around the stables.

"You mean Frost." Olaf looked up from scratching Tulvir's chin

Hearing his name a large sapphire blue head propped up on the other wall, resting there, looking at them with lazy green eyes. He snorted a cloud of frosty air that left sparkling crystals dusting their hair.

Wulf and Julian laughed before moving to pet the father of beasts. He grunted pleasurably at the boys ministrations.

Alxir frowned, brushing the frost out of his hair.

"Isn't there another one?" Julian glanced around the barely lit stable.

"Well…yes, Athor, but he's not really friendly. No one is allowed near him accept Henrick and Anna." Olaf glanced over at another pen where the disgruntled beast in question was laying, watching through the slats in the wood with piercing yellow eyes.

"What? Are you scared of a lizard?" Alxir laughed.

"No…just… Anna and Elsa told me to stay away from him. He's dangerous." He shrugged. Wulf and Julian watched the conversation quietly.

"Well, of course they wouldn't want anything to happen to you, where would they be then?" He snorted.

"I…what do you mean?" Pale brows met between blue eyes.

"Well the only reason the Queen and Lady Anna could get married in the first place was because they have you, her majesty doesn't have to produce an heir. If something happened to you they couldn't be married anymore …it's no wonder their main concern is keeping you safe." He shrugged.

Olaf bit his lip and glanced at Wulf and Julian who merely blinked back, eyes wide.

"No…they just worry, Elsa and Anna love me." He argued. Alxir rolled his eyes.

"I'm sure that's what they tell you, but really everyone does dangerous things sometimes, do they ever let you do anything?" He questioned, arms crossed over his chest.

"Yes! I train with swords and ride Tulvir!" He threw down his fisted hands.

"But never without Anna, right?" He countered. Olaf pursed his lips. He hated to admit it but he was right. .but…" He floundered. He couldn't be right. Anna and his sister loved him. He knew it!

"What are you 4 doing in here?" They jumped when a lantern appeared at the stables entrance.

Henrick peered at the boys.

"Your highness, you know you aren't supposed to be here without Lady Anna." He grunted. Olaf deflated at the statement. Alxir just sent the Prince a knowing look. Wulf and Julian glanced at each other silently.

"Yeah, sorry Henrick. We'll go back to the party." Olaf mumbled. Henrick stared a second more before nodding and walking over to the pen where Athor was. He popped up happily in the guards' presence.

The boys walked silently back to the courtyard. The bustling sounds of the party inside reached their ears again.

"Thanks for showing us the dragons, Olaf, but I should go find my father." Julian gave the prince a bow before leaving them.

"Yes, thank you, Prince Olaf." Wulf bowed. "I should go to, I'll see you around the docks sometime." He bowed before hurrying off. Alxir cleared his throat.

"Well, I am sorry I had to be the one to point out the obvious to you." The older noble brushed imaginary dust from the sleeve of his jacket.

"It's not true." He insisted with a growl. Alxir shrugged.

"I tried to tell you. I'd best be going as well. Good Evening, Prince Olaf." He bowed and turned on his heel and strode back inside the castle.

The Prince's jaw clenched. He couldn't believe what the noble boy said. Wouldn't believe that Anna and his sister worried over his safety for any other reason than that they loved him. Not because he was the reason they could get and stay married.

He trudged back into the party. It was starting to wind down. Stumbling lords were making their way to their rooms and servants were trailing behind picking up and making sure no one fell in the halls.

Elsa and Anna were both standing near the throne. Anna said something and the queen shook with silent laughter and leaned heavily against her wife, intertwining their fingers together. The knight grinned toothily and leaned her head atop the blondes, mumbling something that made the queen smile adoringly at her redheaded wife.

Olaf watched them from across the ballroom. He knew without a doubt how much they loved each other, but they loved him too. He knew it.

But then…

Why did he feel so unsure? Why were Alxir's words digging at him? Seeping under his skin like acid.

The thought wouldn't leave his mind for the rest of the evening.

His sleep was fitful.

 

* * *

 

The afternoon after the party Olaf was following Anna through the castle to the stables. Henrick at her side.

"Why can't I go with you?" The Prince pleaded as he Anna climbed onto Frosts back, settling into the saddle and taking up the reins.

"This isn't a pleasure ride Olaf. Henrick and I are going to check out some reports about a pair of bandits making trouble to the north. It could be dangerous. You'll be safer here." She assured.

Olaf frowned. There it was. Keeping him safe. It struck a chord somewhere inside and he frowned.

Anna noticed his slump and smiled.

"When I get back we'll go riding, I promise." She reached down from Frost's back and ruffled his neatly combed hair. He nodded glumly. Anna frowned but before she could say anything Henrick was next to her astride Athor.

"Are you ready, Princess?" She scowled turning toward the guard who smirked mockingly. Anna gave him a warning look.

"Yes. Let's go. You better get to your lessons with your sister, Olaf. Be good." She winked and with a flap of wings both were gone, rising into the sky and heading north.

Olaf sighed and Tulvir stuck his head over the gate, nuzzling the boy. Olaf scratched his chin distractedly.

"It's not true." He mumbled, glancing at Tulvir who chirped and gurgled in response. He gave him a last pat before leaving the stables.

He made his way to his sisters' study and knocked quietly, almost hoping she wouldn't hear him.

"Enter" She called.

He peaked inside, Elsa was sitting at her desk, pen moving across the papers in front of her. Icy eyes glanced up and she smiled.

"Showing up for your lesson without having to be escorted by a guard? What's the special occasion?" She set the pen down and motioned him forward with her fingers.

"I didn't have anything else to do." He shrugged. "Anna wouldn't let me go with her." He sat in the chair across from her.

"They're going looking for a pair of notorious bandits plaguing the villages in the north. I certainly hope she has enough sense to not let you tag along. It could be quite dangerous...I'm not happy about her going at all." She shuffled the papers together.

"Everything is dangerous according to you." He grumbled. Elsa's eyes swiveled back to her brother, frowning.

"Is something bothering you, Olaf?" The queen set the papers down, turning her full attention to the Prince in front of her.

"You never let me do anything. Everything is too dangerous!" He scowled and crossed his arms. Elsa sighed.

"So many of the things you wish to do are dangerous. I know it seems like I'm just out to ruin your fun but I just don't want anything to happen to you Olaf. I don't know what I would do if something happened to you." She stood and came around the desk, resting her hands on his shoulders. Olaf pursed his lips.

"You understand don't you, Olaf?" She pleaded. Pale sky blue eyes looked up to stare into icy blues a scant shade of two darker than his own.

He gave a nod, he understood perfectly.

 

* * *

 

Olaf stuffed a last few things into the sack before slinging it over his shoulder and glancing at the rolled up piece of paper left on his pillow where someone would assuredly find it, along with the Spring Quartz necklace Elsa had given him for his last birthday.

His stomach churned when he looked at it but then Alxir's words and filled his head, pounding in his ears mockingly reminding him that the people he love most in the world only cared about him because they needed an heir.

His eyes watered. He didn't want to believe it but everything the other boy said had been proven true. Had been true he realized as he looked through his memories at all the times he was forbidden to do things that other boys got to do.

He glanced around his room one last time before slipping out into the dark hall. It was raining, hard. The heavy pattering against the windows masked his less then silent steps. The howling wind caused them to rattle in there panes. He jumped with every peal of thunder.

He snuck out through the kitchen , unbolting the back entrance as quietly as possible and ran down the stairs to the back entrance.

It was pouring out, almost blindingly so, but he knew the way by heart.

The gates were closed at night but he had a secret way out. He pushed aside a bush that concealed a moderate hole in the outer wall and pushed his sack through before shimmying through himself, getting coated in mud in the process.

It had almost all washed away by the time he jogged into the stables. A glowing green eye cracked open, watching him. Jura snorted before closing his eye and going back to sleep.

Tulvir sat up when the prince approached. He trilled happily when the prince rubbed his snout. But whined when he pulled away and grabbed the saddle off the wall, hefting it onto the beasts back. Tulvir began to fidget excitedly the moment Olaf moved toward it. It took 10 minutes longer than normal to strap it in place with his twitching.

Once he tied his sack to the saddle he climbed onto the beasts back and grabbed the reins.

"Let's go." He kicked his heels into the dragons sides and with an excited growl he bound out of the stables into the field and with a few flaps rose into the air through the pouring rain.

He didn't know what he was going to do, but he at least had a destination in mind. One of the few places he had ever been outside the castle.

Within an hour he brought Tulvir down to land on a large ledge of a gaping cavern on the face of the North Mountain. Olaf slicked the soaked hair plastered to his face back. He and his bag were waterlogged. He slid off with a wet squelch. Tulvir gave a shake slinging water everywhere.

Olaf laughed and gave a shake himself. Tulvir made a gurgling grunting sound the prince adamantly claimed to anyone who would listen was the dragons version of laughing. Only Anna would believe it. Elsa thought it was a ridiculous notion.

A stab of pain ripped through his chest at the thought of the two. He balled his fists. Pale eyes peered down at the trembling albino and could immediately sense the change in his young master.

He bent down and nuzzled his face against the Princes chest. Olaf clung to the beast as tears tracked slowly down his face.

He clung to the quietly growling beast for a while before finally pulling back and wiping at his eyes.

"I've always got you, right?" He asked, looking up at his scaly companion. Tulvir butted his head against the princes making him giggle.

"I'm going to explore the cavern. Some of the passages get a little small, you better stay here." He rubbed the beasts' snout before digging through his sack and pulling out a lantern. It was wet but he managed to get it lit with the flint Anna had given him when he was younger and they had gone camping together.

In a flurry of sparks the lantern lit and filled the pitch black cavern with light. He blinked, letting his eyes adjust to the sudden change in light.

Tulvir tried to follow when he started down one of the passages. He held up his hand and Tulvir seemed to huff before plopping onto his behind, clearly pouting.

"Sorry." He smiled. "I'll be back soon.

He hopped over a rock and rounded a corner, once he was out of sight Tulvir gave a whine and dropped his head across his feet mopeingly.

Olaf walked through the tunnels, running his hand over the smooth stone walls. Stalagmites dotted the ceiling and water occasionally dripped from their tips, echoing off the walls.

It wasn't far before he saw a flickering light at the end of the tunnel. Olaf stopped. Listening like he'd been taught. There was some quiet muttering bouncing off the walls to his ears. He knew. He knew that he should have backed up as quietly as he could and left with Tulvir, but his curiosity got the better of him.

He crept slowly forward till he could peak around the turn. A pair of dirty looking men in hoods were sitting around a fire muttering quietly.

"We need to lay low for at least another day. The Dragon Knight has probably given up because of the storm but she'll probably be back by morning." One of them muttered gruffly.

"Right. If she catches us the Snow Queen will have out heads." The other growled. Olaf swallowed thickly.

These were the bandits Anna had gone out that afternoon to catch. He backed up slowly and silently.

Till his leg snagged on a large rock and he tripped, dropping the lantern and it shattered loudly. He jumped up and ran through the dark tunnel, running into the walls and tripping in his panic. His heart pounded in his ears.

"Grab the lil bastard!" One shouted. A moment later he was yanked violently backwards. He choked, hands going to his throat as he was thrown to the floor, rocks dug into his back and a boot stepped none too lightly onto his chest

"We have company." The man standing on his chest grumbled. Olaf whimpered before his world became an explosion of stars, going black.

 

* * *

 

Anna trudged into the castle sopping wet, Henrick beside her. Both left a trail of water in their wake. Not only had they lost the bandits somewhere around the North Mountain but they'd been caught in the downpour for several hours. Even in the middle of summer the rain was cold on her skin.

They were surprised to find all the lights lit and everyone awake when they stepped into the foyer. Servants were rushing around or looking distraught, muttering quietly to each other.

"Why is everyone up at this hour?" Everyone turned to look at her some nervously and other sadly. A maid walked up to her looking miserable.

"You had best go and see her majesty in the throne room, your highness." She muttered looking at the floor. Anna took off running through the foyer without a word. Henrick right behind her.

Anna burst through the throne room doors to find Elsa slumped over in the chair sobbing loudly. Gerda was doing her best to console the queen while Kai and Jarvis stood nearby speaking in hushed tones.

"Someone tell me what's going on!" Everyone turned toward the knight as she ran up to them.

"Anna!" The queen jumped up and threw her arms around her wives neck and sobbed. Anna clutched the trembling queen in her arms.

"What's wrong? What happened?" Panic was beginning to well up in the redheads gut.

"He's gone" She cried harder. Tears disappearing into the knights already soaked armor. "Olaf is gone!" Her voice broke. Anna's heart skipped a beat.

'W-what?" She looked up at the rooms other 3 occupants. Kai came forward with a folded piece of paper and held it out to the knight. She numbly shifted her wife to her side and grabbed the piece of paper.

A glint of green and silver fell from inside the paper and Kai picked it up, handing it to her.

The Spring Quartz necklace Elsa had had made for him for his last birthday. He slid it into her hand and she flicked open the letter, eyes scanning its contents.

It was deathly silent save for the sound of the queen's muffled sobbing into Anna's shoulder.

The paper crinkled in in the knights white knuckled grip.

"How…how could he think for one moment that we don't care about him? She whispered harshly but in the near oppressive quiet she may as well have screamed, her own eyes glazed over with unshed tears. Elsa shook her head against Anna's neck and hiccupped.

Henrick managed to slip the paper out of Anna's grasp and read it before frowning.

"I...may have an idea of how he got this nonsense into his head.." He looked up from the letter and ran a hand over his goatee. All eyes turned to the guard.

"Last night during the party I caught the Prince and 3 young noble boys in the stables with the dragons. One of them, a Castillion boy of about 16 was telling his highness that the only reason you and her majesty cared so much for him and his safety was because without him as heir to the throne you couldn't be married." He sighed.

"You didn't think it was important to mention this last night?!" Anna snarled, watery eyes ablaze. Henrick jumped and lowered his eyes to the floor.

"It's not his fault…" Elsa croaked. "It's mine. My brother is gone and it's my fault." She squeezed her eyes shut as tears continued to roll down her cheeks. Anna pulled back, untangling the queen from her and cupped her cheeks in both hands.

"No. it's not your fault Elsa. He's a child and he's being stupid." She brushed away some of the tears falling down the ivory skin.

"He's not gone. I WILL find him and bring him home." She leaned her forehead against Elsa's. The queen sniffed and teary eyes opened to look at her.

"Promise. Promise you'll bring him home." She begged. Anna nodded.

"I promise. I'm going now, try not to worry, please." She pleaded. The queen nodded morosely. "Kai" She called. The head servant nodded and came over to escort the queen back to her study.

"I'm going." Anna turned to go.

"Wait, Lady Anna shouldn't Henrick and I go with you?" Jarvis called.

"No. I have an idea of where he might be. I'll handle this alone." She took off back toward the stables and when she got there she peeked over the stall to find that Tulvir was indeed gone. Anna's stomach twisted mercilessly.

The prince had never ridden in a storm before. Much less one of this caliber. He could easily be blown from Tulvir's back or lose his way.

She bit her lip hard enough to draw blood as she jumped onto Frost before taking off toward the North Mountain. If something happened to the prince it would destroy Elsa and herself.

She couldn't imagine life without Olaf.

She had a pretty good idea of where he would be. He'd been to one other kingdoms and only to a few places outside the castle walls. She knew him. Knew where he was. Her eyes watered.

She hoped.

 

* * *

 

Olaf blinked blearily. His head was throbbing and he could taste blood in his mouth. The rope tied around him his wrists chaffed. He whimpered at the stabbing pain in his head.

"Hey, I think he's awake." A hand fisted in his hair and yanked his bowed head back to stare at a face only a mother could love.

Yellowed crooked teeth grinned at him from a patchy bearded face. His hood was pulled back revealing greasy mousy brown hair.

"What's a brat like you doing all the way up here? Don't you know it's dangerous for children to be out this late?" He leaned in uncomfortably close. Olaf tried to lean away but the grip the man had o his hair prevented it. "Especially for the Crown Prince of Arendelle." He smirked.

The Princes blood turned cold. Anna and Elsa had warned him when he was younger that if he was ever taken by someone that didn't know who he was to never tell them. Anna had told him that they would do horrible things to him if they knew he was a prince.

"I'm not…" The bandit gave him a slap.

"Don't even try to lie. There are 4 dragons in all of Arendelle and they all belong to royals; the guard Captain, the head guard and the Dragon Knight. He scowled disdainfully at the mention of the redhead.

"And the Crown Prince." He gave the albino another slap to the other cheek. "And you don't look like the first 3 so that must make you; Crown Prince Olaf of Arendelle."

"What do you think the Snow Queen would be willing to pay for her precious little brother?" The other one piped up from his place by the fire, picking his teeth with the nail of his pinkie. His mop of black hair fell over his eyes.

"Oh, I'm sure the future King and sole heir of Arendelle will fetch an even better price from one of the kingdoms that their not on such good terms with." The one in front of him glanced over his shoulder at the other. "The dragon too, especially." He glanced over and Olaf followed his gaze.

Tulvir was lying across the floor of the tunnel, a rope wrapped tightly around his snout preventing his mouth from opening.

He was glaring balefully at the man holding the Prince by his hair, a deep growl constantly vibrating out of his chest.

"We had to rough you up a little to get him to be a good little lizard." He gave a yank on the snowy locks gripped in his fist. Olaf whimpered and Tulvir's growls intensified. He tensed like he was going to jump up but he pressed the blade of a dagger to Olaf's throat and tsked.

"We may just have to kill it and sell the bits." The one by the fire grunted watching the interaction.

Olaf choked back a sob when he said that. Yellow teeth turned back to him and smirked.

"I think our dear Prince doth protest too that idea." He smirked.

"What a shame." The other one chuckled. Yellow teeth stood up and drug the prince by his hair over to the fire, ignoring the young teens cries.

Tulvir's growls echoed louder than ever through the tunnel.

"What do you think little Prince?" Yellow teeth grabbed his face and squeezed his cheeks between his thumb and pointer finger. Tulvir continued to growl.

Tears had already began to track down Olaf's face. The two bandits laughed.

"It's almost a relief a cry baby like this won't ever be King" Yellow teeth squeezed the Princes face painfully with a chuckle.

They noticed a moment too late that the growling had ceased.

With a vicious roar Tulvir snapped his now free jaws around yellow teeths other arm, dragging him away from the prince as he screamed Just as the other one jumped up the sound of a sword sliding from its home rang out and the black haired bandit didn't have time to think about drawing his weapon before he was impaled on Winter's sting.

Olaf nearly broke into sobs at the sight of Anna.

She slid her blade free of the now dead bandit before turning to the one struggling and screaming one in Tulvir's grasp. Olaf turned away as the thunk of the hard ice piercing flesh and the screams were silenced.

After a moment a pair of calloused hands grabbed him around the forearms and yanked him to his feet. He blinked wetly up at the knight. Her face was pinched with worry.

"Are you hurt?" Her voice was rough like she'd been crying. He shook his head. "Good. Let's go home." She growled. Now that he was in front of her and unharmed the worry was subsiding and deep fury was bubbling up inside.

"I'm not…" He squeaked.

"NOW, OLAF!" She turned yelled at him. He flinched and Tulvir hunkered down as well.

"Wh-why should I?" He cried "You and Elsa don't care about me!" The slap echoed through the tunnel. Olaf held a hand up to his now stinging red cheek.

How…dare you…" She growled unable to even finish the sentence. "You…have no idea what your sister has been going through…" She held up her fisted shaking hands. "She's at home crying her eyes out worried to death about you and you have the nerve to say she doesn't care!" She was well aware she was screaming but she could feel the rage boiling up at the Princes words and her wives miserable contorted face in her mind.

"Elsa loves you more than anything in the world and if you don't know that then you're a damn fool!" She snarled.

Olaf choked on a sob as he looked up at the angry screaming knight. Her face was as red as her hair. He hiccuped quietly.

"Now, let's. Go. Home." She ground out before turning around and stomping down the tunnel. He followed sullenly.

The ride back to the castle was absolutely silent save for the rain. Henrick was in the stables when they arrived home. He took Frost and Tulvir's reins.

Tulvir nuzzled the prince before he followed Anna out of the stables into the castle.

He followed her up the stairs and down the hall to his sisters study.

"She's in there." He looked at the door. They could both hear the crying through the wood. Olaf's heart sank into his feet. "Go." He glanced up at her and hesitated before cracking open the door and peaking inside.

Elsa was sitting hunched over her desk, her head in her hands.

"Elsa" He squeaked. The blondes head shot up and the moment her eyes were on the prince she jumped up.

"Olaf!" She crossed the room in a few quick strides and wrapped her arms tightly around him, her sobbing renewed. At that moment Olaf knew how very wrong he had been, how wrong Alxir was.

He felt stupid for considering for even a moment that Elsa and Anna didn't love him. He clutched the back of the queen's night dress and buried his face into her shoulder as he cried again.

"I'm sorry, Elsa." He sobbed into the fabric.

The queen ran her fingers through his hair and hushed him like he was a baby again when she managed to reign in her own cries.

"You're the only family I have in the world, I love you, Olaf. Don't ever doubt that." She pushed back his once again sopping wet hair.

"What happened to your face?" She ran her fingers over the still red mark on his face.

"Anna slapped me…" He mumbled.

'What?!" Her mouth fell open in total surprise.

"I deserved it." He sniffed and wiped at his eyes, and smiled. She wiped away the tears still remaining.

"Where is Anna?" the open doorway was empty.

"She's mad at me. Really. Mad." His eyes went to the floor. Elsa pursed her lips.

"I imagine she is, but you know Anna. She's mad now, but let her cool down and apologize. Anna loves you just as much as I do and you know it, don't you?" She asked him quietly.

He nodded solemnly. The queen smiled.

"Anna will forgive you as I have." She pulled back and reached into the pocket of her night dress and pulled out his necklace and slipped it over his head. "Now go to your room and change, your soaked."

He nodded and smiled at Elsa before going to his room. Elsa blew out the candle in her study before going to her own room.

Anna was sitting on the bed fiddling with her sword.

"You slapped Olaf?" Was the first thing she asked the redhead. The knight flinched.

"yeah." She nodded glumly. "I was just so angry with some of the things he said I…" She clutched the blades scabbard tightly.

"it's okay." The queen soothed and sat next to her wife. "Just…don't be so hard on him tomorrow okay?…He's sorry." Anna nodded and sat the blade aside before flopping back onto the bed without a word.

 

* * *

 

It wasn't until late the next morning did the prince get up enough courage to go looking for his sister-in-law.

Anna was in the stables looking over Tulvir when Olaf found her. She glanced over her shoulder when she heard him coming.

"I hope you don't think you're going riding. It's going to be a long while before you're allowed to ride Tulvir again. Your sister is to relieved to have even thought about punishing you yet, but I have." She grunted.

The princes shoulders bunched up to his ears at the knights tone. She sounded like she was still mad for certain.

"Okay." He mumbled.

'What are you doing here, don't you have a lesson?" She asked a bit harsher then she meant to.

"I'm sorry, Anna." He mumbled quietly. The knight paused before sighing heavily and finally turning to face him.

"Do you have any idea how worried we were about you? And then that damn letter you left?" Her voice rose angrily.

He stayed quiet. He didn't know what to say. She sighed again and he tentatively glanced up. Anna was standing in front of him hands on her hips.

"Your sister loves you and maybe I don't say it enough, but I love you too and it hurt us both that you didn't think so." Her voice cracked and Olaf flung himself against her, burying his face in her chest. Her arms wrapped around his back.

"I'm sorry." He mumbled.

"Do something like this again and you'll wish the bandits had taken you." She growled half seriously and flicked his head. He nodded. "Good. Now grab a shovel." She pulled back from him. "Your cleaning out all the stalls for the next fortnight."

Olaf bit back a groan at the Knights smirk.


	7. Reception

The party was in full swing not long after all the guests had migrated to the ball room. The room was full of sound and revelry.

Anna surveyed guests from her place next to the queen as the long line of congratulations began. Eventually the faces and words all blended together in her mind. The same words over and over.

Luckily she didn't have to put up with it for very long before Kai made his way back to them.

"Your majesty, your highness, it's time for your dance." Kai interrupted the line. Elsa glanced at her or more her broken appendage.

"I' don't think..." Anna cut her off by grabbing her hand with her good one.

"Just give us a moment, Kai." She nodded to him. He gave a slight bow before walking away.

"You can't dance with a broken arm, Anna." The queen persisted, looking at her new wife exasperatedly.

"Sure I can, trust me." She gave a light tug on Elsa's hand. The queen followed her into the middle of the ballroom with a skeptical look.

She wrapped her good arm around the queen's waist as the music began.

"Just put your hands on my shoulders and it'll be fine." She assured. Elsa did and when the music began in earnest the injured Knight led them in slow circles across the floor. After a little while other couples joined them.

Elsa leaned in as close as she could without pressing into the knights slinged arm.

"This is still not the most awkward dance we've ever had." She smirked. Anna chuckled quietly.

"You wouldn't be referring to the time we got drunk in our bedroom would you? Because I wouldn't call that dancing so much as drunken shuffling while we leaned against each other." She smirked.

"You understood the point." She rolled her eyes. Anna just grinned.

When the song ended there was a tap on the knight's shoulder. She glanced back to a smiling Alistair.

"Would you mind terribly your highness if I cut in?"

Anna pursed her lips, both annoyed by the title and the Castillion King wanting to take her wife. Her grip on Elsa's waist tightened just a fraction.

"Don't you have your own wife?" She grunted. Elsa smiled and gave a small poke to the redhead's side.

"it's just one dance, Anna. Then I'm all yours." She promised kissing the knights cheek before taking the kings outstretched hand. Anna reluctantly released her.

"Perhaps you wouldn't mind a dance with me while my husband preoccupies your wife?"

Anna glanced over and smiled at Amelia. She held out her hand and the Castillion Queen took it. She set her hands on Anna's shoulders and the knight rested her good hand on the other woman's hip and began leading her around the floor.

"What happened to your arm?" Amelia wondered aloud. Anna blushed.

"I…fell getting out of the wash tub..." She mumbled. Amelia giggled but quickly sobered at the look on Anna's face.

"Sorry." She muttered quietly.

"Where's Andrick?" The knight glanced around the ballroom.

"With Olaf…hopefully." She looked unsure now that she thought about it. Anna chuckled.

"I'm sure your little hellion is fine."

The queen gave the redhead a light swat to her uninjured shoulder.

'My son is an angel, Anna Maria Bjorgman." She defended the little prince. A red brow cocked upwards and she hummed a disbelieving affirmative.

The Castillion Queen gave a little huff as they continue a slow waltz around the polished wood floor.

"The ceremony was beautiful. Elsa looks more stunning than ever." She observed. Anna smiled goofily.

"She does, doesn't she?" She glanced over where her wife was dancing with the Castillion King.

"I honestly expected a blue dress from her, but that teal and cream one is gorgeous, as are you." The dark haired queen complimented. Anna blushed

"Thank you Amelia but it's really not very different from my normal uniform, not to mention how I'm gimpy." She gently shrugged her injured side to emphasize.

"You're always like that, Anna." She laughed in her usual thick accent. "Nearly whenever Ally and I come to visit you're on the mend from one accident or another." She reminded.

"That… is a coincidence and proves nothing." She defended with a sniff.

"Of course." Amelia smiled but Anna could hear the teasing in her tone.

When the music faded out the knight bowed her head. Amelia giggled at the knight's annoyance before curtsying back and walking back to Alistair who was now alone.

"See, all in one piece as promised." Elsa was suddenly at her side again, wrapping her hand around Anna's elbow.

"The King and I would have a very big problem if you weren't." She sniffed. Elsa rolled her eyes.

"Oh yes, We wouldn't want you to trip on him and break a leg, would we?" She bit her lip to hold back her laughing. Anna glared at her wife.

"You're just soooo funny…" She drawled, teal eyes narrowed. Icy blue ones crinkled with mirth.

"I have to call it as I see it, darling." She gave a light poke to the broken appendage. Anna hissed stepping back from the smiling queen. "Come on." She gave a light tug and lead Anna expertly through the throngs of people, avoiding the chatty dukes and duchesses and out onto one of the quiet, empty balconies.

Anna leaned against the stone railing, looking back into the bright and loud reception going on in the ball room.

"I'm going to have too assign a guard to my guard." The queen sighed as she stood next to the knight.

"This could have happened to anyone." Anna defended with a pout. Elsa leveled her amused but steady gaze on Anna.

"But it's always you, darling. Not anyone. You." The queen pointed out. "Maybe you should just wear your armor all the time…though I'm sure you would still find a way to cause yourself harm." She smirked. The knight stuck her tongue out childishly.

"I'm glad you find my frequent brushes with harm to be so amusing." She drawled. The queen giggled and wrapped her arms around Anna's neck and leaned against her, mindful of her arm.

"You wouldn't have near so many accidents if you would slow down or watch where you were going and doing." She retorted with a knowing look.

"You make it sound easy." She grunted. Elsa giggled.

"It is easy darling. I know you attract trouble like a moth to a flame, you of course being the moth…." She trailed off with a laugh when the knight snorted into her neck.

"You only say that because of the time I fell into that camp fire…" She grumbled nuzzling her face into the queens shoulder.

"It did cross my mind I admit." She smirked, tangling her fingers in the copper locks. Anna rolled her eyes.

"As much as I love you recounting my many accidents maybe we should return to the party before they come looking for us." She suggested. The queen hummed in agreement but made no move to remove herself.

"Elsa" She smirked.

"Yes, yes I know." She sighed.

"You don't want to go back to our wedding reception?" She asked disbelievingly.

"I don't want to play nice with all the dignitaries tonight. I just want to enjoy it with you." She grumbled into Anna's neck.

"You sound like me." Anna smirked.

"I know, frightening isn't it?" Elsa giggled. Anna snorted.

"I told you we could have just eloped." She reminded. The queen rolled her eyes.

"You know we couldn't." She leveled a gaze on her. The knight rolled her eyes.

"So you say…" She mumbled.

"Your majesty, your highness."

They both turned to find Kai standing in the balcony entryway.

"It's time to cut the cake if you're ready." He informed before vanishing back into the throngs of people.

Elsa sighed and Anna smirked.

"Well, you heard the man. Our guests our waiting, no avoiding anyone now till the party's over." She extracted herself from the queen's grip.

"Let's go." She took the queens arm and lead her back to the ballroom.

"You just want some cake, don't you?" She smirked.

'What? No, but now that you mention it, I would eat some." The knight grinned as they moved around the guests.

Olaf was already standing at the table waiting for them.

"Well, you're not the only one who wants cake." She smirked. Anna ruffled the Princes neatly combed hair with a smile making the queen sigh irritably and fuss with the boys mussed hair making the 12 year old grumble and swat at her hands in his hair.

"Stop, Elsa." He whined.

"Leave him be and let's cut the cake." She bumped her hip against the blondes and Kai handed them the knife.

Olaf took off with the first piece and a few servants took over cutting up the large white cake.

"Oh, here comes your favorite person, love." The knight hid her grimace behind a bite of cake. The queen turned to look and couldn't hide hers as the eldest Rusitcan Princess made her way over, but at least her husband, Prince-Consort Verko was with her, looking as sour as usual.

"Is she ever going to give up on you and realize that you're mine?" She growled quietly under her breath.

"Well we just got married, if she doesn't give up after today she never will and at the risk of a war I give you permission to freeze her." Anna whispered into the blonde's ear before going back to her own piece of cake sitting on the table.

"I just might." She mumbled as Seraphine stopped before them, smiled sickly sweet at them and curtsied. Verko kept his dour frown but bowed.

"Queen Elsa, Lady Anna. I would like to offer my sincerest congratulations on your marriage." Seraphine smiled. The queen forced a smile on her face that made Anna grimace behind her fork. She knew that look, it was a barely repressed snarl.

"Thank you, Princess Seraphine, Prince Verko. Anna and I are so glad you could come." She looked to Anna who had a mouth full of cake and frosting on her chin and suppressed a sigh. Anna blinked and swallowed.

"Uh, yes. Very. Thank you for coming." She smiled at Verko. Trying not to even look at Seraphine, it apparently tended to egg woman on and she'd learned that lesson already and didn't want to revisit it, especially on her wedding day. It had been months since the queen had hit her with any real malice and she wanted to keep it that way.

"We of course wouldn't miss it, oh, Lady Anna, what happened to your arm?" Her voice dripped with what all 4 of them knew was false cheer and concern. The queens smile was just as stomach churning sweet as she explained.

"What a shame and on your wedding day no less, that's not a good omen." She hummed. Anna saw the slight twitch of the queen's brow and set her fork on the plate, wrapping her arm tightly around Elsa's waist.

"This has nothing to do with Omens, it's me being clumsy and my fantastic new wife putting up with it." She kissed the queens cheek, leaving icing behind on her cheek, making the queens lips twitch upwards even in Seraphine's presence.

"How…lovely." The Rustican heir forced out. "Well, we best let the two of you get back to your other guests. " She curtsied and Verko bowed, hiding a small snarky smirk.

Once they'd gone Elsa squeezed her back as the redhead wiped the icing off her cheek and popped the digit into her mouth and Elsa grabbed a napkin off the table and wiped the remaining icing off Anna's grinning face.

"Have I told you today that I love you?" She asked, puling the napkin away. Anna shrugged.

"Not recently, feel free." She grinned and gave the blonde a final squeeze before releasing her and picking up her fork, a bite halfway to her mouth when Elsa grabbed her fork and placed a quick kiss on her lips before putting the fork in her mouth.

"Well, I love you. Accident prone and all."

"I hope so, since you just married me, you're stuck with me forever now." She grinned and licked the icing off her lip. "Lucky me." She mumbled quietly with a grin.

Elsa jabbed her wives broken arm. Anna hissed through clenched teeth.

"Behave please. At least until the party is over." She pleaded. She glanced over the knights shoulder. "Especially right now, please. The Duke of Weselton is coming." She said quietly and wiped away any remains of icing on Anna's face as she groaned.

"I hate him." She growled under her breath as the queen took her fork.

"I know you do, but we've had this discussion already. You're not just my knight anymore, you're my wife. Your word is second only to mine and that means more responsibilities, like being nice to people you don't want to. That was part of the arrangement you agreed to." She reminded.

"I know, I know. I have to play…" She stopped, scowling.

"Princess" Elsa finished for her with a small quirk of her lips. Anna grunted, annoyed but resigned.

"Fine" She hissed. "But if he ignores me…" She trailed off.

"Your majesty." The small mustached man bowed. "I'd like to offer you my sincerest congratulations on your nuptials." He glanced over at the redhead and nodded his head. "To you as well, Lady Anna." His tone was less than enthusiastic. Teal eyes narrowed and Elsa could see the annoyance building behind her eyes and jumped in before she could open her mouth.

"Thank you very much, Lord Weselton. Both my wife and I really appreciate your attendance." She slipped her arm around the red heads good one. When she remained quiet Elsa gave a squeeze.

"Yes. What kind of party would it be without you?" The tone was pleasant but Elsa could see the twitch in her jaw.

"yes…well, your majesty I wanted to talk to you about our agreement…" He started but Elsa was quick to cut him off.

"I'm sorry Lord Weselton, I'm not discussing business tonight. Not until tomorrow afternoon." She apologized. He frowned, mustache twitching.

"Oh, very well." He conceded.

A small commotion across the ballroom had the queen turning toward the noise which was no doubt Olaf and Andrick. Anna looked back to find the Duke looking down at her wives backside. She glowered and when the queen turned back around his eyes immediately came back up.

"Please excuse me, your majesty." He bowed before walking away. Anna growled at his back

"Let me guess…" The queen trailed off, eyeing the knight out of the corner of her eye and tightening her grip on her arm before she could tackle the Duke to the ground. "He was staring at me again wasn't he?" She didn't even have to ask by the way Anna was seething.

"He's at our wedding and still groping you with his eyes." She growled. Elsa patted her hand.

"Relax. It won't be long now before we can leave make our escape. Just keep it up for a little while longer. Don't kill anyone, please." She rubbed the knights arm soothingly.

"I can't make any promises." She grumbled, glaring holes into the back of the retreating Dukes head. Elsa picked up the knights abandoned fork and scooped up a piece, holding it up to the Anna.

"Just relax and eat your cake." She offered. Anna pursed her lips looking less then pleased before biting down on it and chewing agitatedly.

The Queen spent the rest of their time at the party avoiding business and keeping an eyes on her accident prone wife who kept fingering the hilt of her sword and glaring at the Duke from across the ball room.

Anna nearly dragged her from the ballroom when she claimed it was alright for them to leave, which was no less than 4 hours later.

"Try not to look so eager to leave, you'll insult out guests." The queen scolded as they left the ballroom but the smirk on her lips betrayed her.

"Oh please. Most of them are so intoxicated we could set what's left of the cake on fire and no one would notice." She waved it off and drug the queen by the hand back to their room. "I'm exhausted and I can't play nice with one more sloshed Duchess trying to grab my behind when you're not looking." She huffed.

"It only happened once." The queen giggled. As she followed the redhead down the quiet empty halls.

"She could have come back!" She argued. When they stopped in front of their door.

"Should I carry you over the threshold now?" The blonde smirked as Anna opened the door, she glanced back, teal eyes narrowed.

Elsa cocked a brow, waiting for an answer.

In one swift movement the redhead bent down and swept the blond up onto her good shoulder. Elsa shrieked as the knight strutted over the threshold into their room before setting her back down just inside the door.

"Was that really necessary, Anna?" She breathed, smoothing out the now wrinkled fabric of her dress.

"Yes, but I'm regretting it already." Anna grimaced and rubbed her shoulder.

"Are you trying to insinuate that I'm heavy?" The queen narrowed her eyes and shut the door behind them.

"For the sake of a marriage that just began, there's really no safe way for me to answer that, so I won't."

"Uhuh…I need to get out of this, will you unlace the back?" She turned her back to the knight, pulling the curtain of white gold locks aside and glancing over her shoulder.

"I can try." She smirked, wiggling her only useable hand before working at the ties, managing to loosen it enough

"I meant to ask earlier but Gerda was rushing us, but your dress…" She trailed off. The queen glanced down at the silk teal dress.

"I thought you liked it…" She blinked questioningly at the redhead.

"No! I Mean yes, I love it! You're breathtaking." It's…" She babbled. The queen pressed her palms against the knights chest.

"Don't hurt yourself, Freckles." She smirked and patted the uniformed chest. Anna grunted. "Now, what about the dress?"

"It's…not what I expected is all." She reached out and rubbed the material between her finger and thumb.

"What did you expect?" She moved away toward the vanity pulling the bodice loose.

"I don't know…something blue and made of ice I guess. " She shrugged.

"You mean like I wear most of the time?" She mumbled slipping the garment over her head.

"You can see why I'd think that then." She struggled with the belt of her sword, trying not to jostle her arm anymore then she was going to have to when she finally had to take off her coat.

"Yes, but I decided real fabric would keep better over time." She smoothed the fabric before hanging it in the wardrobe and pulling out Anna's old worn blue tunic and slipping it on over her head.

'Well, at least one of us will get to keep what they wore. I need you to cut this off me, there's no way I can bend my arm to get out of this." She finally managed to get her belt off and laid it and winter's sting in the nearby chair and unbuttoned her jacket.

"Are you sure? It looks so good on you…I hate to cut it." She frowned and ran a hand over the sapphire blue material.

"Quite sure, unless you want to catch me when I black out. Just get my dagger over there." She nodded over to where her armor sat in the corner.

"I don't think I could and as for my dress not being blue, I suppose I just wanted it to be my favorite color on our wedding day." She shrugged as she sat on the bed and carefully began to cut the fabric over Anna's arm.

"But…blue is your favorite color?" It was less of a statement and more of a question.

"No it isn't" She didn't look up from cutting the sleeve off her wives broken arm.

"Since when?" The knight asked with a flinch as the queen jarred her arm. Elsa glanced at her apologetically.

"A long time, I like blue but somewhere years ago I guess I just fell in love with teal. Its soothing and comfortable. Makes me feel…safe I suppose." She glanced up at the knights blue-green eyes and smiled.

"I feel like I should have known this." She grumbled and her arm came free of her sleeve letting her shrug the jacket off. The queen snorted and took the jacket from her.

"Probably, but I won't hold it against you since you rarely use a mirror." She hung the jacket up despite the long cut in the sleeve, planning to have it fixed.

"I…don't know what that means…" Her face scrunched up bewildered. Elsa smirked and patted the knights cheek.

"Don't worry about it, darling."


	8. Jealousy

Anna sighed silently from her place standing against the wall of Elsa's study silently watching the queen discuss terms with the second born Prince of Jutzlan.

They had been at it for a few hours now but there didn't seem to be an immediate end in sight. The morning had held such promise too, even if she had to play her role of bodyguard through a long boring political meeting.

The day had however taken a turn for the worst for the knight when Prince Klein proved to be an ardent charmer and ladies man.

He would shoot the queen a dazzling smile and say something clever or funny between business and Elsa would smile and laugh behind her hand, eyes crinkling.

Anna's jaw clenched every time. This had been quite the problem in the last 3 weeks. Several of the agreements between Arendelle and nearby kingdoms had reached their end and needed to be renegotiated.

Despite the public knowledge that the Queen of Arendelle was romantically involved with the Dragon Knight, the representatives that had been sent over the past 3 weeks had all been young men in their mid-twenties who had all been more than just a little friendly and it annoyed the knight immensely.

Elsa knew how annoyed the knight was and had been walking on eggshells around her whenever the topic came up. Anna would deny it but the queen knew well that Anna was the jealous type.

The fact that she had yet to strangle one of the visiting Princes was a testament to her patience but Elsa could see it running out with every passing day that she had to entertain the flirtatious fools who thought themselves a better match than her redheaded knight.

When Klein began reading a document the queen chanced a glance at the knight to find her glowering moodily at him. Anna was far from happy that much was quite clear.

It didn't help that with all the work she had to do lately she had barely been able to spend any time with her. They kept a decent amount of distance when conducting business and she'd been so tried when they finished she fell asleep nearly straight away.

She had to finish this though; the knight understood that the kingdom came first. Anna would just have to wait.

It was 2 hours later when Prince Klein finally left to return to his guest room, concluding their business before he left in the morning. Anna sighed loudly as soon as the door shut and slumped over into the Princes abandoned chair.

Elsa shuffled the documents together into a neat pile and glanced over at the knight.

"I know, it was a long meeting. I'm sorry you had to stand there for all of it, darling." She apologized. Anna grunted and crossed her arms.

"The standing I could live with, it was the constant flirting between you two that made me want to lose my lunch." She grumbled under her breath. The queens wide eyes jerked up.

"I can't believe you think for one moment that I was flirting with him, Anna." She stood up and walked around the desk to stand next to the sulking redhead.

"They've all been flirting with you. Every. Last. One. of them." She growled. "They act like I'm not even here." She sneered. The queen slid onto the knights lap and ran her hand through the bright copper hair.

"You know I'm just being polite. I don't care about them, I love you. I know it's…chaffing but it doesn't mean anything on my part." Anna hummed to show she was listening but still aggravated.

"Klein leaves first thing in the morning and he's the last one I have to meet with. I know I've been very busy but I want to make it up to you." She pushed back the knight's bangs.

"You don't have to make anything up to me, you didn't do anything." She mumbled, leaning into the touch, already calming now that all the princely thorns in her side were soon to be gone.

"I know, but perhaps you, Olaf and I could do something together after Prince Klein leaves. Anything you want." She promised.

"Anything? Copper brows cocked upwards. The blonde pressed a kiss to Anna's forehead and nodded.

"Anything" She affirmed.

"Well, Olaf's been begging me to take him camping and he wanted you to come." She suggested.

"As in…outside the castle walls?" She asked.

"Well, It wouldn't really be camping if we stayed inside the castle walls would it?" She argued.

"No…I suppose it wouldn't" She hesitated. Anna quickly picked up on it. She lifted the queen off her lap and slid over to set the blonde in the chair and stand up.

"You don't want to go, do you?" She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. Elsa hopped up out of the chair.

"No, no. I didn't say I didn't want to go. It just seems…a little dangerous to go camping outside the castle walls, even with you." She held her hands up in defense.

"Maybe, but I think we'll be fine if we take Tulvir and Frost. Who in their right mind would attack dragons?" She argued.

"It's the people who aren't in their right minds that worry me." The blonde mumbled under her breath. Anna cocked her brows in question. Elsa nodded. "Alright. I said anything. We'll go camping." She conceded. Anna grinned.

"Great. We can leave after he leaves, since it will no doubt be early. I'm going to go tell Olaf." She dashed out of the queen's study.

Anna found the 10 year old prince in the field in front of the stables, playing with Tulvir. She nodded away the guard standing watch over the boy.

"Hi Anna." He waved from his place on the ground, Tulvir's head laying across the Princes stomach.

"Were going camping." She clapped her hands together. Olaf jumped up grinning Tulvir's head plopped lazily onto the ground with a thump.

"Really?!" He grabbed the knights waist. Pale blue eyes gazed up at her shining with excitement.

"Yup, you me and Elsa. We leave as soon as prince charming boards his ship in the morning." She grumbled at the mention of Klein.

"So you're going to teach me how to start a fire?" His face lit up.

"Yes." She nodded "But! I meant what I said, only if you promise that any and all fire making is done outside and outside only. Your sister will get mad at me if another tapestry goes up in flames." She mumbled the last part.

"That was your fault." The albino boy blinked up at her. The knight frowned.

"Yes, but if you set something on fire she's going to blame me. So let's not do that." She ruffled his hair.

"Ask Kai to pack you some outside clothes, things your sister won't have a fit about if you ruined them." The Prince ran off with a grin back towards the castle, his guard trailing behind him. Tulvir jumped up to run after the prince but Anna cut him off.

"Whoa, whoa there, boy. Don't worry. You'll have plenty of time to smother him when were out camping." She patted his snout and led him back into the stables.

Jura and Frost both popped their heads up over the gates of their pins, Athor glared sideways at the knight from between the slats of gate. Frost stuck his cold muzzle into the juncture between the Knights neck and shoulder.

She jumped with a giggle, slapping at the giant head. He snorted a frosty mist over her as she lead his youngest son into his pin.

"You're so needy." She grinned and climbed up onto the gate of her beasts pin. He nuzzled his head into her chest while she ran her hands down the smooth blue scales around his jaw. 'You'll get some attention to, don't worry." She patted his thick muscled neck before hopping down from the gate and trotting out of the stables back toward the castle. The bells had already began to ring, signaling noon, and time to eat.

Both the queen and the Prince were already sitting at the table when Anna entered the dining hall.

"Olaf hasn't wasted a second since you told him." The queen smiled and glanced down at the packed bag sitting next to the princes chair. Anna grinned and took her spot across from the Prince to Elsa's left.

"I did tell you we weren't leaving till the morning right?" She asked as she spread her napkin over her lap. With a mouth full of food the albino prince nodded.

"just checking." She mumbled around a bite of her own, ignoring the queens painfully disapproving look.

The dining hall doors opened and Prince Klein walked in, escorted by as guard.

"Good afternoon, your majesty." He gave a curt bow and sat next to the younger Prince. The knight sent a scathing look in the queens direction.

Even without looking the blonde could feel the other woman's angry gaze. She cleared her throat, wiping her mouth with her napkin.

"Prince Klein, I didn't expect you to be joining us this afternoon." Her regal face falling into place though the less then pleased expression on the knights face made her slightly nervous.

"Well I'm afraid I'll be leaving this afternoon rather than in the morning, I hope I'm not intruding?" He smiled at her charmingly.

"Of course not." She said quickly when she noticed the knights jaw begin to work. "Please join us." A plate was set down in front of him by a servant.

He made pleasant small talk with queen while Anna shot glances between the two of them as she chewed agitatedly on the bite she stuffed in her mouth to keep her tongue busy. Olaf vaguely aware of the tension radiating off Anna, kept his mouth full as well.

The meal dragged on longer than usual with Klein refusing to let the conversation die. His leaned in toward the blonde, flirting shamelessly. Anna had all she could take and with guards and servants milling about the dining room she didn't have to stay. She tossed her napkin onto the table and stood, drawing everyone's eyes to her.

"I have some duties to attend, please excuse me." She nodded her head but didn't make eye contact with anyone before quickly leaving the room.

She made her way to their bedroom, grumbling to herself all along the way about pompous flirtatious Princes who couldn't take a hint.

She huffed to herself as she pulled her old travelling sack out from under their bed and threw in her essentials, a couple extra set of clothes, flints and a few other things. She carried the majority of things she needed on her so there wasn't need for her to pack much. She tossed it into a chair and pulled off her tunic and boots before flopping back onto the bed. Just picturing Klein's slimy grin made her skin crawl the more she thought about the kinds of things the Prince was no doubt thinking about her beloved queen.

With a sneer she curled onto her side and managed to drift off into a light sleep.

She wasn't sure how long it was after she fell asleep but she was roused by a cool hand on her back through her undershirt.

She grumbled, slowly blinking open her eyes to find a braid of silver blonde hair in front of her face. She glanced over her shoulder to find Elsa laying behind her, her hand on her back.

"Prince charming leave?" She mumbled with light growl. Elsa sighed noiselessly through her nose.

"Yes, Prince Klein left. I didn't know he was going to be joining us for lunch..." She started.

"Or throwing himself at you.." She growled. The queen hesitated.

"He was…a tad bit forward…" She conceded. Anna snorted.

"yeah, forward…" She drawled.

"You're mad, I know…" The queen began. "But you know it doesn't mean anything, I have to be nice to him, his father is an important trading partner."

"Mad? Why would I be mad? I'm not mad." She puffed. Elsa wrapped her arm around the pouting knight's waist and pressed a kiss onto the back of her neck.

"Of course not…but I love you and no one else so there's no reason for you to be mad…though you're not...of course." The corner of her lips twitched upward. Anna grunted.

"I'm not. Just annoyed at that pompous… prissy little bastard..." She trailed off growling. The queen rolled her eyes.

"Yes, you're not mad." She mumbled under her breath. "Well He's gone now I just saw him onto his ship and watched it sail away, so relax." She soothed. The knight grumbled, but didn't turn to face her.

"Oh, Anna, come on." She gave the redhead and squeeze and peppered her neck and back with kisses. The knight squirmed briefly before giving in.

"Alright, alright!" She flipped over into the blondes embrace and captured her lips in a series of long kisses.

"Feeling better?" Elsa breathed when Anna finally released her. The knight nuzzled her face into the crook of the blondes neck.

"Yes." She mumbled.

"Good, so were leaving in the morning? Olaf is so excited he can't stand it." She Smiled, untangling herself from the redhead.

"Yup, so he'll be dashing in here before the break of dawn." She sighed rolling over. "Which means I'll be going back to sleep now." She pulled out her braids and shook out her mane before slipping under the sheets and going back to sleep.

 

* * *

 

"Hurry up Elsa!" Olaf yelled as he dashed out of the castle toward the stables, Anna following right behind him. The first light of day had barely broken over the horizon as the queen followed behind them at a much slower pace.

"Yeah, Elsa. Hurry up." The knight teased over her shoulder as she followed the crown prince to the stables. The queen yawned behind her hand. It was to early to argue with the knight.

"I'm coming." She mumbled behind another yawn. When she finally walked into the stables Anna had already packed their sacks into Frosts saddle bags and Olaf had climbed onto Tulvir's back.

"You're not riding him, Olaf." Elsa's tone brooked for no argument. The princes bottom lip trembled but his sister wasn't budging.

"Someone has to ride him to our campsite, I guess it'll be me." The knight helped the prince off the snow colored lizard.

"What about Frost?" The queen asked worriedly. Anna glanced at the blonde over her shoulder.

"You and Olaf can ride him yourselves. He's easy, its Tulvir that gets distracted easily so it would be better if I rode him." She waved away the queens concerns.

"You want me to fly Frost?" She asked disbelievingly. Anna just blinked and 'll be easy.e never flown him, Anna." She stressed. The knight waved her off.

"Don't worry about it, he'll be easy. Like...riding a pony." She assured the queen. Elsa didn't look like she believed her. "Not a lot of choice, Elsa. Pick your poison."

The blonde pursed her lips. There was no way she was letting the Prince ride alone, much less on an untrained dragon.

"We'll take Frost." At the mention of his name the beasts long neck came around, nuzzling the queens cheek, chittering happily. She smiled and rubbed the smooth scales along his cheek.

"I trust you at least." She mumbled quietly whereas only Frost could hear the words.

"Lets head out, i have to stop at the trading post to the north and pick up a few things we didn't have." She helped the queen and Prince onto the blue beasts back.

"Are you sure about this, Anna?" Elsa questioned the knight nervously. She trusted the beast but she had still never ridden him without his mistress.

"I've never been more sure about anything." Anna grinned as she hauled herself onto Tulvir's back. The pale lizard made loud chirpping sounds and gave a slight shake but the Dragon Knight of Arendelle held tight, she gave a yank on his reins and with an aggravated huff he settled.

She could swear Frost looked amused from where she was sitting.

"Let's go!" She gave a slap and with a huff Tulvir took to the air, heading to the north.

"Come on Frost!" The Prince shouted from his place sitting in front of his sister. Frost growled merrily and large speckled silver wings stretched out before a strong flap lifted him and his precious cargo off the ground, following his mistress and son.

It was only 20 minutes of riding, the sun peeking up over the horizon when they could see the North Mountain in the distance. Anna glanced over her shoulder at Frost following behind her, Elsa and Olaf both looking out at the vast forest scape that was their kingdom, sunlight making their light colored hair glow in the morning sun.

She whistled and all 3 sets of eyes turned to her. She pointed downwards and lead Tulvir to the ground onto a path that wound between the trees. An old wooden trading post nary 50 feet away.

She hopped down and walked over as Frost landed gently on the ground a few feet from the knight.

"That wasn't so bad was it?" She caught the prince as he leapt from the dragons back. She set him on the ground with a grin and held her hand out to the queen who took it with a smile.

"Not as bad as i imagined." She acquiesced and let the redhead help her down. "What did you need to get?" She glanced at the cabin with the dry cracked sign reading "Wandering Oaken's Trading post"

"I told Olaf we'd make him his own fishing pole and i need to say hello to a friend, it will only take a few minutes, come on." She wrapped her arm around the blondes and walked towards the trading post, Olaf bounded ahead up the rickety steps and through the door, the bell jingling. Anna and Elsa followed.

"Yoo-hoo" A large man with white dusting his ginger mustache wiggled his fingers happily.

Anna grinned and waltzed over, the large man stood and embraced the much smaller woman.

"Its good to see you, Anna." He smiled down at her. "It has been a while, ya?"

"It's good to see you too, Oaken. It has been a while, i've been rather busy." The knight grinned sheepishly.

"I have heard. The Dragon Knight of Arendelle ya?" He gave a chuckle. His eyes glanced over her and noticed Elsa for the first time. He jumped and took a quick step forward and went down on one knee.

"Your majesty." He greeted the queen reverently. She nodded and greeted him.

"This is Oaken, he's an old friend of Lucian's and mine." Anna introduced the giant of a man as he stood and smiled softly at the blonde queen.

"Welcome to my shop." He nodded his head and walked back to the counter. He smiled at the white headed prince staring intently into the large glass jars of brightly colored rock candy.

Anna walked down the familiar aisles and picked up a ball of twine and a bag of salted dry meat and some small metal fishing hooks.

She walked back to the counter just as Olaf ran out the door, letting in a gust of cool mid fall air. Elsa looked up from a pile of clothes she was inspecting to catch a glimpse of her brother as he disappeared.

"You gave him candy didn't you?" The knight accused with a grin. The mountain man looked back blankly, but the corner of his lip twitched..

"I've no idea what you're talking about, Anna. You're just as suspicious as your father." That caused the queen to look over "15 gold" He held out his open palm.

"Mhmm.." She grabbed the pouch at her waist and counted out the 15 gold pieces for the supplies and a few more for a pound of the rock candy without the queen seeing and slipped it into her black bear fur cloak.

"We should get going, but i'll try to come see you more often." She promised the giant of a man. He waved goodbye with a smile.

Elsa followed the knight out with a small wave of her own.

'"Take care of her please, your majesty."

Elsa stopped, hand still in the air. A beat went by and she smiled.

"I will." With that she followed the Anna back out where she was sticking the things she'd purchased into Frosts saddle bags.

"We'll walk the rest of the way, the place we're going to camp is only a few hundred yards away, close to the river." Anna nodded toward the east, where the river was.

"What are we waiting for then?" The queen smiled at the knight and the 10 year old standing nearby.

 

* * *

 

It took only a few hours to set up the camp. A tent for the queen and Knight and a smaller one a couple yards away, next to where Tulvir and Frost would sleep, to keep the Prince safe.

The 25 year old knight sat next to Olaf on a rock by the river bank, fixing the twine to the Princes new pole. Tulvir sat nearby, snout dipping into the water.

"Don't be disappointed if we don't catch anything, Olaf. With winter on the way the fish are going to be getting kind of scarce…and him" She jerked a thumb in Tulvir's direction, mumbling distractedly as she finished tying a hook onto the end of his line.

'Here you go." She set his new pole down next to him. "You catch some bait?" She asked. The prince held up his cupped hands with a smile.

"yeah, I caught a cricket." He grinned proudly and opened his hands to show her.

"Don't let it go!" The green insect jumped out of the albino's open hands making the boy shout and drop the pole before diving into the browning grass.

Anna laughed as he disappeared into the brush after it.

"Having fun I take it?" The knight looked up as the queen came through the trees.

'Yes, a lot actually. Thank you." She grinned and hooked a work onto the end of her own pole before casting it into the water.

"I hope were not depending on what the two of you catch to feed us." Elsa looked over her shoulder to where her brother was rooting around in the foliage. "We might starve…" She drawled with a snarky smile.

"Oh, there's that rapier sharp wit I've grown to love." She grumbled, looking up at the smirking blonde from under her brows. "And no, I brought some provisions, this is just for fun, why don't you join us?" She looked up from watching the bobber float across the river surface.

"I'm content to watch over the camp till my hunters return." She giggled and ran her fingers through the red locks. The knight leaned into the touch but it was gone as quickly as it came. "Be careful." The blonde warned before turning and walking back through the trees toward their camp.

Olaf scrambled back to the bank without his cricket but not empty handed.

"I lost it, but I got a worm." He smiled and held up the wriggling bug, his hands covered in dirt.

"Good, hook it and throw it out there." She nodded towards the water.

Olaf plopped down beside her and did just that, jabbering excitedly the entire time about everything that came to his mind. Anna only half listened until a name passed the Princes lips that caught her attention.

"I don't like him and he smells funny." The Prince wrinkled his nose, mouth scrunched up.

"Prince Klein?" The knight asked . Olaf nodded.

"He made Elsa nervous after you left." The albino stated looking up at her from his place sitting in the dirt at the knights feet. Anna's brows furrowed.

"How did he make her nervous?" The Knights tone turned sharp as she looked down into the princes wide sky blue irises. He shrugged.

"I don't know, she just got nervous when he asked about…" The prince trailed off, pale brows furrowing between his eyes as he tried to recall the exact words he'd heard the day before.

"joining the kingdoms in marriage…I think." He finally recalled. Anna jumped up and looked down at the prince intently. She knew enough about the Jutzlan royal family to know that there were no unwed woman in it and thus the only marriage Klein could have meant was between him and Elsa.

The knight's fists curled into tight balls, her pole gave off a sharp crack under the pressure. Elsa hadn't said anything about the Prince proposing marriage the night before.

"Stay here with Tulvir, Olaf." Anna growled out, throwing down her pole and stomping back through the woods to their camp. Olaf just blinked and watched her go. He already knew something was wrong.

He sighed and looked over at Tulvir who blinked back.

"They're going to fight…"

Elsa was sitting next to the fire when the knight stomped into camp. The queen took one look at the angry teal eyes she normally couldn't stand to turn away from and knew something was wrong.

"Anna, what..?" The knight cut her off.

"Did Prince Klein ask you to marry him? The sharp accusing tone cut through any other noise in the area. The queens already white complexion paled considerably at the knights words.

"W-where did you hear that?" She stammered out. Anna's brows dipped angrily, meeting between her eyes.

"Tulvir, who do you think? Olaf told me. Told me after I left he proposed the two of you better 'unite' your kingdoms." She growled holding up her hands and finger quoting 'unite'. The queen bit her bottom lip nervously. Anna was mad and only getting herself angrier with every passing second.

Frost sensing the dark mood radiating off his mistress curled into a ball beneath the tree he had been napping under and tried to make himself as unnoticeable as possible.

The queen took a few steps forward and placed a hand on the knights arm.

"Yes, Anna. Prince Klein did…propose a marriage between us for the benefit of our kingdoms..." She tried to explain calmly to the aggravated warrior. Anna shrugged off the hand on her arm.

"And you didn't think to tell me about it?!" She nearly shouted. "How could you not tell me?!" Anna could feel her temperature rising but for the life of her couldn't rein back the bubbling fury as a mental image of the Prince kept jumping to her mind's eye.

"I didn't want to upset you!" Elsa yelled back. Ice had unknowingly begun to creep out under her feet and a cold breeze whipped through the trees.

"Well that worked out splendidly didn't it, I'm way more upset now that you didn't tell me!" The knight nearly screamed as she turned on heel and stomped away.

"Where are you going?" She called after her but Anna didn't answer and disappeared from sight.

Anna stomped away from the camp site muttering darkly under her breath. She couldn't believe Elsa hadn't told her something so important. It was infuriating. They all knew very well that she and the queen were involved. That was why the few days he'd been there Klein had waited until shed finally left the queens side to bring it up. The knights teeth gnashed together angrily.

The bastard had just been biding his time. Elsa should have told her, but she hadn't. If Olaf hadn't told her how long before she'd heard the staff whispering about it once they'd gone home?

Anna sneered to herself. Her blood was boiling in her veins.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been stomping around the woods stewing but it had begun to get dark, so at least some hours. She sighed heavily. A great deal of the anger had worked its way out of her system but she was still less than happy. She glanced up at the quickly darkening sky and cooling night air. Long shadows quickly disappearing on the faces of the small rides and boulders that dotted the forest.

Her eyes darted around the woods as she made her way back, not paying attention to where she was walking till she took a step and found nothing but air. Her yelp of surprise was short lived as she tumbled down the ridge, nicking herself on the rocks and dead tree limbs that stuck out of the dirt. She hit the ground with a hard thump and a pained groan.

"Damnit.." She coughed blinking the dirt out of her eyes. Her tunic had a few small holes and was covered in dirt but was mostly intact. She tried to push herself up hissed painfully falling back to her ass. Her was screaming at her.

She pushed herself up to her elbows with a sharp intake of breath. She slowly and painfully worked off her boot to find it turning a sickly purple shade. Not broken, but sprained badly for sure.

"Fuck" She cursed and threw her boot down angrily. "Of course." She growled to herself and plopped back into the dirt and leaves at the base of the ridge she'd just taken a short walk off of.

"Could this day be any worse?!" She cried looking up at the sky hands held up. The moment the words left her mouth her stomach growled loudly. She sighed, hands dropping back to her sides in the dirt.

"So It could.." She mumbled realizing she had yet to eat anything the entire day. With a slight hiss she pulled herself into a sitting position. "What, no rain?!" She huffed with a glare up at the sky.

She laid there wincing for at least a half hour before she heard something other than the rustling of the dry falling leaves.

She turned her head up toward the noise and listened.

"Anna!" It was quiet and distant but getting closer and louder.

"Anna, where are you?" It was Elsa.

"Elsa!" She called back. Footsteps were getting closer to her. "Watch out for the ledge." She looked up just as the queen peeked her head over the edge of the ridge.

"Are you alright, what happened?" She flicked her wrist and a staircase of ice materialized down to the ridges bottom and she hurried down to the knights side.

"I…fell a little." She grumbled. Pushing herself up. "I sprained my ankle." When Elsa knelt down next to her and slid up her pants leg the knight winced.

"It's certainly sprained." She whispered and pressed an icy hand to the knights' ankle making her hiss.

"What are you doing out here? Where's Olaf?" She asked quietly. Icy blue eyes glanced up at her skittishly before going back to her ankle.

"Tulvir and Frost are watching over him." She was uncharacteristically quiet and Anna knew it was because the queen was afraid she was still angry with her. The knight pursed her lips.

She had every right to have gotten mad, she'd been with Elsa for 5 years and then to find she'd been proposed to by some slimy prince. It was maddening. A stray thought cooled her quickly returning anger.

It wasn't Elsa's fault.

"Anna…Are you alright? The queen asked bringing the knight out of her musings. Teal turned to look into nervous icy blues.

"I'm sorry, Elsa." The queen blinked. "For earlier, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have gotten so upset, it's...not your fault." She apologized looking away from the blondes piercing gaze.

The queen helped her put her boot back on as gently as possible and helped her to stand, pulling Anna's arm around her neck to keep her steady as they hobbled back to their campsite in awkward silence. Nearly there Elsa finally broke the silence.

"it is, partially my fault…I should have known that not telling you would only make it that much worse. I just didn't want to make you anymore upset then you already were, you haven't exactly been happy the last few weeks with all the visiting princes." She mumbled. Anna grunted.

"Would you be happy if you had to sit and watch people flirt with me all day every day for 3 weeks?" She argued.

"I'd bury them in snow." The queen mumbled under her breath. Anna grinned.

"That's what I thought." She laughed quietly to herself. When they hobbled back into camp Olaf was dead asleep sprawled out atop Tulvir's front legs.

Anna dropped onto the ground next to Frost with a grunt. Elsa helped her pull off her boot and inspected her ankle better in the light from the fire.

"Do you think we should go home so we can treat it?" She asked worriedly. Anna shook her head.

"No, I'll be fine by tomorrow I think." She gave the blonde a lazy smile and held up her right hand, her Spring Quartz ring sparkled in the flickering fire light.

"If you're sure." She conceded and pressed an icy hand to the knights ankle making her jolt. "Sorry." Apologized. They went quiet, the only sound being fire crackling and Tulvir's sleepy snorts.

"You…you did say no…right?" Anna asked quietly. The queen rolled her eyes.

"Of course I said no, Anna. I said no to you when you asked, and I love you." She smirked glancing up at the knight from under her lashes.

"Yes. I remember." Anna grunted. Elsa moved to sit next to the knight.

"We've been over this before, Anna." The queen sighed, leaning against her shoulder. "No one is going to take your place. There's nothing any of those princes can say or do to change the way I feel about you, so relax." She kissed the knights cheek. "It's you I love and nothing can change that…except perhaps if you fall off a cliff or drown yourself." She smirked.

"Don't joke. It's a very real possibility…" She mumbled rubbing her hurt leg.

Elsa rolled her eyes and on the other side of the fire Olaf snored.


	9. Ice Cold

"I've been thinking…"

"I'm impressed ." The 29 year old queen of Arendelle replied without looking up from the papers she was going over, she knew without looking up that the knight was pouting in the chair on the other side of her desk. When a minute passed and she didn't reply Elsa glanced up to find the knight turned away from her, cheeks puffed up and lips pursed. She couldn't help but smirk.

"What have you been thinking about?" Elsa prompted. Anna just sniffed.

"Never mind." She grunted, crossing her arms. Elsa had to keep herself from rolling her eyes and further aggravating the pouting knight.

"I'm sorry, Darling. Please tell me?" She asked. Teal eyes glanced sidelong, appraising the queens pleading gaze before turning back to face her.

"I've been thinking about my teaching Olaf how to fight and I started thinking that maybe he shouldn't be the only one learning to defend themselves." She gave a light shrug. The queens brows furrowed.

"What do you mean?" She asked cautiously.

"Well, it wouldn't hurt for you to learn how to defend yourself, an extra layer of protection never hurt." She leaned forward, copper brows rose, silently asking for Elsa's opinion on the idea.

"Isn't that your job?" She asked. Anna pursed her lips, nostrils flared.

'Yes…but I can't be with you every moment of every single day, Elsa. You always come first but I have other duties too." She argued.

"Yes, I know." She agreed nodding. "I don't know though…physicality isn't really my strong suit..." She trailed off.

"I have some bruises from the other night that disagree." The redheaded knight smirked wickedly at the light flush that dusted the queens cheeks.

"You know what I mean." She sighed exasperatedly. "I don't have the physical strength nor stamina to fight with a sword." She set her pen down turning all of her attention to the knight.

"Strength no, but stamina…" She trailed off.

"Anna!" Elsa cried. Anna snickered to herself.

"Sorry, sorry. Who said anything about a sword? You already have a solid defense in your magic, you just need someone to help you train it for the purpose of defense." She explained with a smile.

"And who would do that?" A pale brow arched.

"What is that supposed to mean? I've been your knight and lover for 6 years, have you have no faith in my skills?" She glared across the desk at the blonde queen.

"That depends, are we talking about the fighting or loving part,, because your much better at one over the other." The queen bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing as the redheads jaw fell open like it'd been unhinged.

"I..you.." She choked out. She bolted up straight out of her chair. "Fine, don't take this seriously!" She turned and marched to the study door, hand on the knob before turning to face the amused queen again.

"But let me tell you this, Elsa. You weren't the first woman I ever slept with and if you keep it up, you won't be the last!" She declared before flinging the door open and leaving the office.

Kai passing by stopped and peaked his head in the doorway.

"Is there….a problem, your majesty?" He asked cautiously, no doubt having heard the knights' proclamation.

"I made a small poke at her abilities and I think I've wounded her pride." The blond explained with a slight shake of her head, looking back down at her papers.

"What, if I may ask, abilities would those be, your majesty?" He asked straight faced. Her head whipped back up and a burning red began to spread across her cheeks.

"That…is not important...did you need something?" She quickly changed the subject. She would swear she saw the older mans lips twitch.

"I was coming to inform you that lunch will be ready shortly." He informed.

"Thank you" The tone told the head servant he was indeed being dismissed. He nodded and backed out, closing the door to the study behind him.

When the red had faded from her cheeks she made her way to the dining hall. Olaf was already seated in his chair.

"Hi Elsa." The prince greeted her with a smile. "Where's Anna?"

"In the stables i believe..." She noticed the prince giving her an odd look. "Is something the matter?" She asked.

"The only time Anna misses a meal is when you two are fighting." He frowned. Elsa pursed her lips.

"We're not fighting...i was teasing her and now she's pouting to Frost." She explained taking her seat at the head of the table. Olaf continued to make the scrunched up face.

"I'll apologize..." The queen sighed before starting on her meal. Olaf smiled before starting to eat his own.

 

* * *

 

"Anna?" The blonde peeked her head into the stables. All the beasts glanced up at the queen. Her presence was a rarity in the stables.

Anna glanced up from where she was, astride her sapphire beasts thick neck, running a cloth over his glossy black horns. She frowned and went back t the task at hand.

"Made fun of my fighting and love making abilities, come to make fun of my ability to ride now?" She grunted with a frown.

"You know i was just teasing, Anna." She sighed walking up to lean on the gate of Frosts pen. "You're a great knight and i have no complaints at all about the latter of those two things either" She wheedled with a sly smile.

Anna glanced over at the blonde with a frown.

"I was trying to talk to you seriously this afternoon and you completely dismissed me." She threw down the rag in her hand and turned to completely face the blonde queen.

"If that was serious i'd hate to see flippant." She frowned, crossing her arms. The knights frown deepened.

"Maybe it didn't sound like it, but i was being serious! I just wanted to make sure you had a line of defense if i couldn't get to you and you blew me off." The knight was more upset then Elsa had realized.

"You're right, Anna. I'm sorry. I didn't take you seriously." She conceded. "Though how can you blame me..?" She mumbled under her breath. Anna glared and Elsa held her hands up.

"I'm sorry. I should have listened to what you were trying to tell me this afternoon." she kept any other comments to herself this time.

"Yeah, ya should have." She grunted, turning her attention to adjusting the straps of Frosts reins.

"Anna..." The queen sighed. "If i agree to these defense lessons of yours will you forgive me?" She asked.

"Maybe." The knight hummed.

"We can start tomorrow." The knight spun around and leaned down over the gate capturing the blondes lips in a wet kiss.

"I forgive you" She grinned.

 

* * *

 

Frost watched the two woman lazily from his place curled up on the ground. The knight and her queen stood a few yards away in the field in front of the stables.

"I feel silly" The queen frowned at the redhead standing beside her.

"It's not silly. This is what i started with and what i have Olaf work with." She assured the blonde as they stood in front of a row of straw dummies with ridiculous painted on faces and targets on their chests. Elsa made an unbelieving noise.

"Just trust me." She smiled. "Just focus on the targets and let it loose let me see what you can do." She nodded toward the training dummy.

Elsa glanced between the two a moment before holding up her hand and letting loose a blast of ice. Its missed and embedded itself into the ground beyond the dummy.

"Well, not a bad first try per say…" The knight stated. Elsa frowned. "Try again." She encouraged with a smile.

The queen gave a slight nod and flung her hand out at the dummy, a jagged spear of ice bit deep into the dummy's gut, just below the target.

"That's much better." The redhead praised.

They worked on the queens aim for a while before moving on to creating walls and barriers of ice and snow, losing track of time and before they knew it dark had fallen completely.

Anna admired a tall smooth wall of ice separating her from the queen before it vanished in a glowing mist.

"Let's stop here for the night, we can work on it again when you have free time. I'm going to put Frost back in the stables. Go ahead without me," She nodded towards the castle.

"I'll wait for you." Anna waved her off.

I got to do some cleaning in the stalls, it'll be a little while, go ahead without me. She kissed the queens cheek and nudged her off back toward the castle.

"Alright...but please, take a bath before you come to bed then." She pleaded before turning her back to the knight and walked away.

"Yeah, yeah" She heard the redhead grouch. She smiled to herself.

The blonde made a quick stop by the kitchen, sneaking a few treats to fill the gaping hole in her belly. She'd burned a lot of energy using her magic. She knew the knight was a fierce task master but she had never been on the receiving end of it before.

No doubt Anna would be a while, giving her time to bathe. She stopped a servant walking by and the girl bowed her head before hurrying off to fetch the queens requested water.

She was back quickly, the queen dismissed her with thanks before slipping into the hot water with a content sigh. She wasn't sure how long she'd been in the water nodding off when a quiet noise, like the soft rustling of fabric from her and Anna's bedroom picked her ears.

"Done, Anna?" She called, sitting up, partially out of the warm water. The quiet noise stopped but there was no answer.

"Anna?" She asked. A niggle of nervousness began to creep up on her when there was still no answer. Anna would have answered already, asking to join the blonde in the tub.

A quiet creak echoed in the room, the squeaky floorboard just outside the bathing room door.

The blondes' breath hitched and she silently willed her magic into her fingertips.

"Ragh!" Anna roared, bursting through the door. Elsa screamed, releasing a blast of magic. Teal eyes widened briefly before the shot struck her dead center of her chest, knocking her to the ground.

"Ugh" The knight groaned, hand clenched in the fabric of her tunic above her heart.

"Anna!" The blonde jumped out of the tub, wrapping a towel around her before running over to kneel at the other women's side. "How bad is it?" She rolled the knight back over onto he back, trying to see the extent of the damage. She moved Anna's hand and pushed up her tunic and undershirt.

The place in the center of her chest just above the valley of her breasts was marred with a patch of frost and the glowing ice blue outline of the queen's signature snowflake. Elsa ran her hand across the cold skin, brushing away the ice crystals, covering the slowly fading snowflake with her palm. Anna's hand covered hers on her chest.

"That...hurt." The younger woman moaned as she slowly sat up.

"Y...you...idiot!" The blonde screamed. "I could have killed you!" She shoved the red head, pushing her back to the floor.

"Ow, i just wanted to test you. I didn't think you would shoot at me." She rubbed at the center of her chest.

"That's what you were teaching me to do, you imbecile!" The queen growled angrily water dripping down her face as she helped the knight back into a sitting position.

"But i didn't think you'd hit me..." She mumbled getting to her feet, pulling her tunic back down. The blondes angry frown deepened but her eyes were filled with worry.

"Are you alright?" Arctic blue eyes scanned up and down Anna's body, checking for any injury.

"I think so...it sure as hell stung..but otherwise I'm okay, i think." She smiled reassuringly at the blonde, hoping to calm her worried queen.

Elsa pulled down the collar of the tunic. The glowing snowflake was fading away but the skins above the knight's heart was still quite cold, perhaps just a byproduct of her magic?" She didn't know, she had never struck anyone with it who lived.

A memory of the first and only time she had used her magic to kill flashed behind her eyes. Her breath hitched as the image changed to Anna, speared on the ice.

"Hey..."

She blinked, focusing back on the knight in front of her who was eyeing her warily.

"Are you okay?" She asked, reaching out and running her thumb over the queen's cool wet cheek. The blonde sighed.

"I'm fine. You should be worried about yourself." She frowned.

"I'll be fine, you know im tougher than that." Anna smiled and waved away the other woman's concern. "A hot bath and i'll be good as new."

Elsa Could only nod in agreement.

 

* * *

 

Something was wrong. Very very wrong.

Anna stared at her reflection staring back at her. She was lucky to have awoken before her blonde mate this morning. This would have been more than a little hard to explain when just waking up, though it was already going to be hard to explain as it was.

'What is going on? Elsa's magic?"

She'd woken up feeling even more exhausted than when she had went to sleep the night before. She was cold too. Like she was standing naked in the fjord in the fall, making her muscles stiff and ache duly.

Oh

And half of her once copper colored hair had turned white as snow. She ran her fingers through the hair now a starker color then the queens' fair locks.

"You've been in there a while, are you alright, Anna?" The knight jumped, spinning around to stare at the door separating the bathing room and their bedroom.

"Don't come in, i'm fine." She lied.

"Why can't i come in if you're fine, There Isn't a part of you i haven't seen, Anna. She said.

The once redheaded knight could hear the queens' patience running out and sighed.

She knew she wasn't going to be able to hide from the queen for long. She was going to have to come out of the bathing room eventually and there was no way to explain away her sudden hair change.

With a heavy sigh she walked over to the door and took a deep breath before flinging it open, coming face to face with her startled queen.

Surprised blue eyes blinked curiously before she fully took in the other woman's appearance and her face turned to shock.

Her hands clapped onto the knights cooler than normal cheeks.

"Anna...what...?" Her voice quivered with the beginnings of fear and uncertainty. Arctic blue eyes filled with horror.

"My magic..." She whispered harshly.

Anna grasped the queens' hands in her own, and held them against her chest.

"It's okay Elsa, i think this is really the worst of it. We can fix this, don't worry." She smiled trying to soothe the queens rising panic.

Elsa bit her lip. The knights usually warm and rough, now cold hands squeezed hers. Other than her cool skin and whitening hair Anna seemed to be okay.

"Are you in any pain?" She asked tentatively. Anna shook her head

"No, a little chilly but i was far worse the winter i fell through the ice of the lake." She smiled, hoping to alleviate some of the blonde's fears.

"We need someone who knows about magic..." She trailed off before she jerked. "The Trolls!" She nearly shouted. Anna blinked.

"My brother's trolls?" She asked. The queen barely nodded before pulling free of the knight and nearly running from the room.

After the shock had gone Anna followed quickly out of their room and down the halls.

"Kai!" The head servant jumped at the queens loud call.

"What is your majesty?" He could hear the urgency in her tone.

"Quickly, go find Jarvis and send him to the Bjorgman estate. Tell him to bring Lord Bjorgman back here immediately. It's an emergency."

Kai nodded before hurrying off to the soldier barracks in search of its Captain.

It was more than an hour before Kristoff finally arrived at the castle. In that time Anna's condition worsened.

"By the gods..." He mumbled when he walked into queens' study with Captain Jarvis and saw Anna's now fully white haired head.

She grinned at the honey blonde man but he frowned when he noticed her skin was paler than last he'd seen her and she was slightly shivering.

"What happened, what's the emergency?!" He walked quickly up to the desk.

"We had a small training accident..." Anna began. The queens frown deepened.

"We will explain it to you later Kristoff, but time is of the essence. Anna was struck in the chest by my magic. We need you to go to the trolls and ask them how to fix this; she gets worse with every passing hour." Elsa pleaded; glancing at the shivering knight every few minutes, the guilt in her eyes was obvious. The Noble man nodded.

"I'll leave right now." He turned and left quickly.

"I'll take him on Jura, it will be quicker." Jarvis quickly bowed his head before following the younger man out of the queen's study.

Elsa glanced sideways at the knight to see small white snowflakes begin to blossom across the skin of her cheeks and hands.

She bit her lip. Teal eyes turned to her, before reaching out and taking the queens hand in her own. Elsa suppressed a wince. Her hands were hunks ice even to her and she could feel the tremors going through Anna's as she trembled in the cold.

"It will be okay, Elsa." Anna tried to comfort her. The queen wanted to laugh bitterly at that.

Here it was her fault what was happening to Anna and the woman was trying to comfort her.

The knight gave a hard shiver, having no choice but to pull her hand free to wrap her arms around herself, trying to conserve what heat she had.

"We need to keep you warm, come." She took the knights hand again and lead her back to their room. She tucked Anna in under every blanket she could find while Kai worked the fire place into a blaze.

"Don't worry so much, Snowflake. It's just a little cold. Nothing I haven't survived before." She smiled but the chattering of her teeth didn't comfort the queen one bit.

Anna grew worse with every passing minute within another hour her hands grew even colder, the tips to her knuckles had turned blue and frosty. Snowflakes patterned her skin and her breath rattled out in visible puffs.

They both knew. It was only going to continue to get worse. Anna only wanted to comfort Elsa. She could see the guilt in the queens eyes.

"I'm glad you sent Olaf off to visit Prince Marshal." She managed to get out between her chattering teeth. The queen gave a solemn nod. Anna sighed quietly, frowning.

Kristoff burst inside, carrying the leader of the troll clan on his back.

"We're…back." He panted heavily, setting down the old troll.

"Grand Pabbie!" Elsa stood from her chair.

The old troll nodded to the queen in reverence and made his way quickly to the knights' side. Kristoff lifted him onto the bed. He placed a hand over the knights' chest and frowned deeply causing the knight to frown.

'What is it?" She asked weakly.

"Anna, there's ice in your heart. Put there by the queens magic. If it's not soon removed, to solid ice you will freeze." He told the assembled people gravely. Elsa forced back the tears that now wanted so desperately to break free.

Kristoff stood next the blonde and placed a comforting hand on the queens shoulder, giving a light squeeze. Elsa's eyes were trained to the floor. She couldn't bear to look at him nor Anna.

"How do we remove it?" Kristoff Asked the old troll quietly. Pabbie scratched at his chin thoughtfully.

"If it were her head, it would be a simpler matter, the head is easily convinced, but the heart…is not so easily changed…I know of no way to remove it myself, but the royal library has some texts that might help me devise a solution…"

"Kristoff..."

The blonde looked questioningly at his queen.

"Take Grand Pabbie quickly to the library, please."

He nodded and the old troll quickly rolled after the blonde man as he led him to the room in question.

Anna looked up at the queen. Her face was contorted, eyes shining with unshed tears.

"Elsa…"

The queen glanced up to look at the knights face.

"It was an accident." She tried to reach out to the blonde standing at her bedside but she turned walked out of the weak woman's reach. Anna hand fell limply over the beds side.

"This is all my fault" She hiccupped.

"It's…not your fault…" Anna argued.

"Whose magic was it that did this to you?" She cried, whipping around to look at Anna, tears beginning to drip down her face.

The knights lips pressed into a thin line as she stared into Elsa's teary arctic blue eyes. She closed her eyes and released loud sigh out her nose. Her eyes opened and despite the ice creeping through her very veins her eyes had never burned fiercer.

"Come here…" She huffed holding out her hand.

The queen bit her lip and shook her head. The knight scowled and pushed herself to sit up in the bed. Her weakened arms wobbled under her weight but held her up. She threw back the blankets.

"Anna, please stay in bed." Elsa pleaded. Anna grunted and threw her legs over the side of the bed, but once they touched the floor they gave out, sending Anna crashing to the floor.

"Anna!" Elsa was at her side in a second, helping her to sit up. "The floors too cold, you need to get back in bed." She pleaded. Anna gave one weak attempt but when she couldn't lift herself slumped back against the side of the bed and shook her head.

"I'm much colder than this floor ever could be…" She breathed grabbing the queens arm and tugging her into her open arms, tucking the blondes head under her chin and wrapping her cold blueing arms around her.

"Anna…" She felt the knight shake her head and shush her.

"It doesn't matter now...just sit here with me, Snowflake." The knight mumbled, her shivering turning into full tremors that shook them both, the ice crept over all the visible skin of her arms and hands as well as inching higher up her cheeks.

Tears dripped down the queens cheeks.

"I'm sorry." Anna's weak voice mumbled in her ear. With a sniff the blonde pulled herself away enough to look into the other women's still bright teal eyes. Icy fingers reached up and brushed away the tears on her cheeks.

"For what?" She asked quietly.

"For a lot of things" She gave a dry chuckle. "But for what I said the other day when I was mad with you…my threatening to find someone else…I didn't mean it and I shouldn't have said it." She mumbled.

"I know you didn't.." The queen sniffed. "You've hung around for 6 years, I didn't think one more little argument was going to send you running." She gave the knight a watery smile.

The snowflake patterned ice crawled higher , resting just below her eyes.

Anna grinned, letting a single breathy laugh puff past her lips.

"Right…6 years…You know…it doesn't seem like very long now…" She observed. Elsa shook her head.

"No, it doesn't, does it?" She pressed her forehead to the knights.

"I wish it could have lasted longer…" Her breaths were going shorter and Elsa could hear the creeking of the knights skin turning to ice, starting her tears anew.

"Me to."

"Tell Olaf I love him and he can have my things, so long as he takes care of Frost…" The queen couldn't even manage a nod. "And you… Teary blue eyes managed to open to stare back into the knights tired teal eyes and pale face.

"I love you, Elsa." She rasped.

She couldn't force her tongue to form the words in return, because she knew they would be in farewell. Instead she closed her eyes and pressed her lips to the knights frozen ones, displaying rather than speaking the love she felt for the fading knight.

Frozen fingers threaded through her hair and then she felt the body next to hers grow stiff and still. When she finally pulled away she kept her eyes closed, tears forcing their way past her eyelids.

"Anna..." She sobbed and wrapped her arms around the frozen knights neck, resting her head on the ice cold shoulder. Something at the edge of her senses caused her magic to tingle, but it didn't register till a whoosh of hot air fanned out across her face.

Watery eyes opened to stare into a pair of slowly blinking teals..

The ice was gone and the knights locks had returned to bright copper.

"Did it just get a lot warmer in here?" The knight mumbled.

"Anna!" She slapped her hands over the knights cheeks. They were warm and flushed.

"Ow..." The once again redhead winced.

"The ice is gone." Elsa whispered unbelievingly as she trailed her hands over the knights body, feeling only warm skin. Her eyes locked with Anna's.

"How do you feel?" She asked. Anna pushed herself up and ran her fingers over herself.

"A little weak and tired, but all here I think." She smiled. The bedroom door opened and Kristoff came in with grand Pabbie.

"Anna!" He ran over and snatched her up in a crushing hug. "You're alright. What happened?" He set her down but didn't let her go.

"I…don't know.." She gave a light shrug.

"Lean down here, Anna." Grand Pabbie motioned her toward him. She leaned down and he pressed a hand to her chest and then smiled.

"The ice has gone." He revealed, both blondes sighed in relief.

Kai popped his head inside and smiled, relieved to see the knight again her usual self.

"Kai, will you please take Anna to see Edgar, and make sure she's alright? He nodded and Kristoff released her.

"Ugh, not Edgar…." She moaned but let the head servant lead her away. Elsa smiled, relieved.

"Your majesty, what happened?" The old troll asked.

She didn't know, but told the blonde man and the old troll of her and the knights last moments together. When she finished the elder laughed deeply.

"Of course, how could I not realize it." He smiled up at the queen. Both blondes blinked at each other before turning back to the elder troll.

"What?" Kristoff asked. Pabbie smiled.

"When you kissed Anna, what did you feel?" He asked her.

"I…don't know...how much I loved her and.." The wise troll cut her off.

"Exactly." Both blondes blinked. "Only an act of true love can thaw a frozen heart." He explained

"Love has a powerful magic about it, it's a force greater than any other, especially hate or fear. Your love for her melted the ice that you put there in fear." He smiled.

"Magic is complicated." Kristoff grunted. Pabbie laughed.

"As is love."

"Thank you both." Elsa smile thankfully at them both. They exchanged a few more words before Kristoff escorted the elder troll back to the valley of the living rock with a promise to return the next day to check on his sister.

Elsa waited patiently till Anna returned to the room to throw herself into the knights arms. The redhead laughed.

"Hey, it's alright, I'm fine you're fine. Everyone is fine." She squeezed the queen to her chest and pressed a kiss to the silver blonde locks.

"I didn't know what I was going to do without you…" Elsa mumbled into the knights neck.

"Well, you don't have to. I told you 6 years ago, Snowflake. I'm not going anywhere." She assured.

Elsa didn't say anything, Anna said it but the fact was any day something could happen to either of them.

Maybe it was time to stop waiting.


	10. Ageing

Mid-summer in the Kingdom of Arendelle.

The sun was bright and hot, shining down upon the kingdoms citizens as they went about their day under the heat. A light breeze blowing over the fjord being their only grace from the late afternoon heat.

That breeze however, was scarcely felt by the kingdoms 16 year old Prince as he stood panting in a suit of armor, sword clenched between his hands as he shuffled in a slow circle, keeping his opponent in his line of sight, to lose sight would mean his quick and painful end. Sweat was dripping down his forehead and into his eyes. The salt stung, but he dared not even blink. His muscles were screaming at him, he wasn't going to last much longer, he knew.

His adversary knew it too.

He was just barely quick enough to flick his blade up in defense, blocking the wickedly sharp blade bearing down on him by a hairs breath. His knees bent, threatening to buckle under the pressure his armored opponent was exerting on him.

He grit his teeth and sidestepped, flicking his blade into a downward angle, letting his opponents blade slide off in an attempt at creating an opening for a counter attack but before he could reposition himself he was slapped with the flat of a blade, sending his exhausted body to the ground where he landed in a heavy metal heap upon the courtyards stoned path.

He groaned and rolled over onto his back, dropping his sword and prying off his helmet. His snow white hair clung to his forehead in wet clumps, sweat dripping off his face onto the stones, little dark drop quickly disappearing under the summer sun.

His whole body ached from the metal batting against him from the inside when he'd tumbled to the ground multiple times before that and the strikes he taken.

"Nice try, Olaf, but not yet my dear brother." Winters Sting slid back into its home and an equally sweaty redhead relieved herself of her helmet. The 30 year old Knight grinned down at her defeated brother-in-law.

Olaf grunted through his heaving breath.

"S-som-someday. I will. Defeat you." He huffed out between gasps. Squinting up at her into the bright shining sun. Anna grinned wickedly.

"Perhaps, but that day, is not today." She held out a hand and after sending her a sour look accepted the offered hand. She pulled the defeated Prince to his feet.

"One more time." He grunted after catching his breath. Anna chuckled.

"Not today, Olaf. It's too hot to keep going, beside we have to get cleaned up for that dinner, remember?" She reminded him with a rough pat to his back.

"Right, right. I forgot. Elsa will be really mad if we're late, or better yet, miss it." He scratched the back of his sweaty head and grimaced when it came back soaking wet. They both made a face.

'Yeah, so let's go. I'll beat you again tomorrow." She grinned as they walked back into the cool castle just as Elsa was coming down the foyer stairs.

"I will defeat you!" The teen prince exclaimed, sheathing his sword and stomping up the stairs past his sister, off toward his rooms to bathe, leaving his chuckling sister in law behind.

"He gets more competitive with every passing day." The queen observed with a shake of her head as she stopped beside her wife in the foyer.

"You wouldn't think so…since he never wins." She laughed to herself. Elsa lightly slapped her arm.

"Someday he will though and you know it." The queen reminded her with a small smile. The knight grunted, crossing her arms over her chest.

"I know. Someday, but like I told him, that day isn't today." She smiled as she made her way up the stairs.

"I'm surprised you came in, I was just coming to remind you about the dinner tonight." The queen followed her wife up the stairs towards their room.

"Hey, I remembered. It was too hot to keep going anyway, he was about to pass out from the heat in his armor." Walking into their room she quickly started stripping off her armor.

"Just in time for a bath, you're a little ripe, darling." The queen waved a hand in front of her nose. The knight stuck her tongue out as she pulled off her armor, revealing her nearly soaked through white undershirt.

"I'm hot and sweaty, what do you expect?" She grumbled pulling the sodden garment over her head and tossed it to the floor, shimmying out of her pants as she hopped toward the bathing room. The queen rolled her eyes, watching the spectacle that was her wife.

"Yes, well don't break anything." She called with a small smile as she heard the water slosh. A loud, cutting sarcastic laughing filtered back into their bedroom.

"Ha Ha Ha! That NEVER gets old." The knight growled making the blonde laugh quietly to herself.

"Once bitten, twice shy, Darling." The blonde reminded simply. She could hear the knights quiet grumbling from bathing room as she pulled Anna's clothes from their shared wardrobe.

"I haven't broken any limbs since the day we married you know!" She called. Elsa rolled her eyes.

"How lucky, you went so long without breaking anything, but the day we're married you slip and break your arm, but then never break anything again." She remarked flatly. A loud slosh and thump came from the other room causing the queen to jolt.

"Anna?" She called

"Never say never." Was the quiet reply. The queen hurried across the room into the bathing room to find the redheaded knight leaning her head atop her crossed arms on the tubs side, grinning wickedly.

"I'm just saying, of course."

The blonde glared down at her grinning wife and flicked her wrist.

Anna shrieked, jumping up as the water turned frigid, arms crossed over her chest as she shivered, teal eyes glaring at the now smirking queen.

"Don't stay in there to long, the water will get cold." She purred before turning on heel and walking back into the bedroom.

"Har har." The knight bit out between clacking teeth.

It wasn't long till she came out, towel wrapped tightly around her trembling frame, dark wet red hair clinging to her back. She glared at the smiling queen, sitting at her vanity as she passed to the clothes the blonde had laid out on the bed.

"I'll remember that." She grumbled as she dried off and pulled on a clean pair of breeches and white undershirt.

"I hope you do the next time you try to scare me to death." The queen warned, not looking away from the mirror as she brushed through the long white gold strands.

"You have no sense of humor." The knight sniffed derisively.

"Just because everyone jokes about your legendary ability to hurt yourself doesn't mean I find it funny when you do." She argued.

"I'm not saying you do, I was just kidding." She sighed as she dressed in a clean uniform and walked up behind the queen and plopped her hands on the pale shoulders.

"I guess you're never going to develop a sense of humor." She sighed dramatically before leaning down and kissing the blondes temple. Elsa rolled her eyes but smiled. "Oh well. I still love you…though admittedly a little less." Anna quickly danced away as the queen gasped and spun around in an attempt to smack the cheeky knight.

"You…little…" The queen huffed over her shoulder at the redhead who was chuckling at her. "Just wait, Anna if you thought the ice bath was bad." She let the threat hang between them. The knight just grinned and winked as she went about drying her dripping wet locks.

"Felt good on my shoulder though." She rolled the shoulder in question, loosening it as she ran the towel through her hair.

"Getting old, Darling?" The queen smirked at the redhead in the mirror who frowned over her shoulder at the blonde.

"First of all, I am not old. Secondly, you're older than me!" She growled. Elsa giggled at the sneer on the knights lips.

"True, but you've lived a much rougher life then I have, Anna. Even your body can only take so much." She reminded.

"Hey, I'm in great shape." She defended, glancing in a mirror and flexing when she thought the queen wasn't looking. The blonde bit her lip to keep from laughing.

Anna wasn't the vain type by any imagination of the word, so it was always amusing to see her contemplating her physique or face when the queen made an offhand comment on them.

Elsa stood silently and walked up behind her redheaded wife still contemplating her reflection in the mirror and wrapped her arms around her waist, giving a squeeze.

"Yes, you're in great shape, Darling, but take it easy, half the things you put yourself through are unnecessary. Between that and your…accidents, you're going to put yourself in an early grave." The blondes voice turned serious. Anna grunted.

"It's not like I didn't expect it when I was a wandering sword hand." She mumbled. Elsa's grip on her waist tightened.

"But you're not anymore and haven't been for more than a decade. You're my wife, Princess-consort, remember. Your knighthood is more like….a decoration." She reasoned. Anna frowned and pulled the queens hands from her waist to turn and face her. Elsa could immediately feel the shift in atmosphere around her wife.

"No. My title as princess is the decoration. I accept it only because I wanted to marry you. I am a knight, it's what I was raised and trained to be. To fight and defend till my death, that is my duty, my purpose. Don' mistake that." She reminded her wife, stone faced. Elsa pursed her lips.

"That doesn't mean you need to keep intentionally pushing yourself past your limits. Your body will give out and you know it." Her voice pitched.

"That won't happen for a long time, Snowflake." She tried to assured the blonde looking down at her with worried eyes.

'Well I'd like to keep it as far off as possible, so please, will you promise to try and take it easier from now on? No more running off to fight bandits and mercenary's. " She pleaded. Anna sighed silently but couldn't deny her queen and wife.

"Alright, alright. Fine, I will." She promised, though reluctantly. The queen cupped her cheeks and kissed her.

"Thank you. Now finish getting ready please. Dinner is soon." She patted the knights cheeks before releasing her and going back to her vanity. The knight grunted before going back to drying her wet hair.

 

* * *

 

Anna was only half paying attention to the conversation going on around her at the table. It was all trading and politics nonsense to her. As the queens wife she of course had a working knowledge of the economy, trade and military, it just didn't actually interest her and she was rarely ever asked of her opinion on the subjects by Elsa's advisors or anyone else for that matter.

She glanced around at the nobleman sitting at the table. Her brother looked to be listening as much as she was. She caught his eye and he gave a small barely noticeable shrug and small smile before returning the bulk of his attention to his plate.

"Well, gentlemen, your majesty. The last thing left to discuss will who will be who will be representing Arendelle this year in the inter-kingdom tournament. A formality, of course." Gerard smiled, turning to looking at the Dragon Knight. Anna grinned but the quiet clearing of a throat had everyone turning toward the noise.

"Do you object to Princess Anna representing our kingdom, Lord Southernisle?" Gerard asked, a thick, aged white brow lifted in question. "In the last 7 years she has represented Arendelle she has won 4 times."

Anna turned her eyes to look at the noble man the same age as her brother. Hans Southernisle His auburn hair, a few shades different from her own and large sideburns highlighted bright green eyes set in a face Anna didn't trust as far as she could throw him.

The noble in a white suit steepled his fingers in front of him and smiled what Anna was sure he thought was charming.

"Of course, Princess Anna has done a tremendous job representing the might of Arendelle in the past at the tournament, however I simply think that it may be time for a change of pace." He turned his green eyes to the queen. Anna pursed her lips, trying not to glare at the nobleman.

"Who would you suggest take her place this year, Lord Southernisle?" The queen asked curiously. Though inside she felt rather hopeful that Anna would not be participating in yet another tourney.

"I have a champion prepared. Venn Drick. He's an accomplished warrior and a decade younger then Princess Anna."

After the conversation Anna had with Elsa earlier in the evening she bristled at the backhanded comment on her age.

"So he's green." She commented sourly. Hans turned from the queen to her. Teal and green stared off.

"He's not as well…seasoned as you, your highness. However he's spent a great amount of time in the north, hunting down bandits and thieves in the service of the kingdom. You are of course the most skilled warrior in the kingdom, I'm merely suggesting a…fresh young face."

He smiled again but to Anna it only appeared slimy. She never trusted Hans. He spent the majority of his time trying to ingratiate himself to Elsa and gain favor in the court. She knew his type, always looking for a way to elevate his status. She suspected if She and Elsa hadn't been together all the years he'd be trying his hand for King.

"Maybe I should judge his skills then." She folded her arms across her chest. She was sure she saw the other redheads jaw twitch and it was all she could do to keep her lips from stretching into a grin.

"I think that's a splendid idea." Gerard bellowed, clapping his hands together. He turned to the queen whose face was still as calm and collected as it always was when she was conducting official business.

"If both parties are in agreement then a sparring match to decide who will represent Arendelle this year is an agreeable solution." She agreed. "Lord Southernisle?" She turned to Hans the frown and glare he'd been sending Anna was quickly hid before the queen could see it and he smiled.

"Of course, your majesty. I will Inform Venn when I return to my estate. Would tomorrow morn be a good time for you, your highness?" He turned back to Anna who nodded.

The evening died down and the royal family bid farewell to their guests before all that remained were Anna the queen and the prince.

"Well, that wasn't as boring as I thought it would be." Anna hummed as she sipped on the wine in her glass. Olaf made a disagreeing face.

"Indeed." The queen replied frostily before standing and striding from the room, a cold breeze followed her, blowing the prince and princess-consorts hair. They shared a brief look before Olaf took a drink from his own wine and tried not to grimace in front of the knight.

"You're in trouble." He said around the glass. The knight sighed before gulping down the remainder of her drink before standing.

"Better go find out why…" she grunted. Olaf offered her his still half full glass of wine. She smirked ruefully before taking it and downing it as well.

"Thanks brother." She turned and followed the obviously irritated queen to her study, following the icy steps on the rugs. She didn't bother to knock, after 11 years with the other woman she was specifically told when she wasn't supposed to be doing something, otherwise she had free reign around the castle.

Elsa was bent over her desk furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment, a frown marring her otherwise lovely face.

She was mad. Normally the queen sat straight backed, writing neatly and slowly to make ever stroke of her pen neat and legible.

Ice blue eyes didn't even glance up. Only one person dared to not knock on her door.

"I'm busy, Anna." She said frostily. Anna winced, but closed the door behind her anyway.

"I know you're mad, but I don't know what it is your mad at me for, Snowflake. I can't fix it if you don't tell me." She pleaded, taking a few steps toward her agitated wife before halting when the pen slammed against the desk, splattering drops of ink across the paper she'd been working on and she jolted out of her chair.

"You just, made a promise to me that you were going to cut back on the unnecessary risks and an hour later you're picking a fight!" She yelled. Anna jumped. She was wrong. Elsa wasn't mad. She was furious.

"I know what I promised. This isn't a risk, Elsa. It's just a spar with a kid." She assured the glaring blonde across from her. "No one is going to get hurt."

"I know it's a spar, but it's a fight so you can fight in the tournament, which can be dangerous." She slapped her hand against the desk.

"I already stopped fighting the seasonal tournaments here years ago. I enjoy them, why can't you just let me have some fun?!" The knights voice rose angrily.

"I don't want you to get hurt! I've come a hairs breath from losing you before!"

"Because you shot me!" The moment it left her mouth Anna wanted nothing more than to snatch it back but it unfortunately couldn't be.

The anger on Elsa's face vanished in an instant. To be replaced with a look that wrenched the knights heart painfully in her chest.

"I did." She whispered but in the quiet stillness of the room Anna heard it perfectly. "Maybe you would be safer to stay away from me then." She quickly walked out from behind the desk toward the door.

Anna grabbed her arm.

"Wait Elsa, please. I didn't..." She couldn't finish as the queen ripped her arm away, choking back a strangled sob as she fled the room leaving Anna alone. Her shoulders slumped. She slapped her palm against her face.

"You damn stupid idiot, Anna!" She yelled at herself. "How could you say that..." She mumbled.

When she went back to their room she found the door locked and could hear the faint crying on the other side but didn't try to call out to the queen. It was probably best to leave her be for now.

With a silent sigh she walked down the hall to the room she had once used when she first came to live in the castle. She slept there once in a blue moon when things like this happened. It was unofficially her room, guests were never put there and Anna left her extra things in it, underneath the bed was a still quarter full bag of gold coins from the bounty she'd been paid when she first came to the castle.

She stood in the cold empty room, surveying it with tired eyes before dragging the bag out from under the bed and shoving two handfuls of the coins into her pockets and throwing on a light hooded cloak before leaving the room.

It was still warm outside even though the sun had gone down long ago. Not many people were still wandering around the streets but there were a few heading off to where Anna didn't know but she glanced around at them as they passed. Most ignore her, with her hood up they didn't recognize her, but some nodded good naturedly to her as they passed.

The tavern was alive with noise when she stepped inside, plenty of people still up, drinking and causing a ruckus. The knight took a seat at the counter and ordered a drink which was promptly set down before her. She drained it nearly as quickly before ordering another , set down as quickly as the first.

"Give me another, bar keep." Anna blinked before turning to her right at the sound of the familiar voice.

Kristoff was stand a few feet from her, waiting on his drink.

"Kristoff?" She asked. He blinked before turning to look at the stranger to his left, peering down to look under the hood.

"Anna? What are you doing here?" He asked curiously as he plopped down into the seat next to her.

"I could ask you the same thing." She looked up at him from under her hood. He shrugged.

"I just decided I'd stop for a drink before going home to Conna and Julia." He smiled as his drink was sat down in front of him. He turned to look at Anna and frowned. She looked far from happy.

"What's wrong?" He turned to face her. Anna sighed before looking up at her younger brother with tired eyes. She sighed before telling him about the evening before and after dinner. Kristoff rubbed his lightly bearded chin thoughtfully as the knight talked. When she finished she looked at the larger blonde questioningly.

"I really can't tell you how to conduct your marriage Anna, but...she's not wrong. I worry about you to. You're always taking unnecessary risks, putting yourself in danger."

"I'm a knight." She growled.

"Yes. You are a knight, but you're princess-consort too. You're the queen's wife. You command the guard, but you don't always have to be fighting with it. You wanted nothing more for years then to marry Elsa and now that you have you're constantly trying to cut the time you have with her short."

Anna slumped over the bar the more her brother talked. What he was saying made a lot of sense. She could admit. If Kristoff saw it this way then surely Elsa did too.

"And I'm sure I don't need to tell you about why what you said was very wrong…" He finished his drink with a huff, setting

"Fighting is all I'm good at, what else am I supposed to do?" She sighed.

"You don't have to give up all your duties, Anna. Just take a step back and do something that doesn't involve potential injury. Spend time with your wife and don't sell yourself short, sister. You can do a lot more then swing a sword." He assured before standing up and laying a some coins on the rough wood counter.

"I should be getting home. Good luck when you get home." He smiled before turning and leaving the tavern. Anna watched him leave before turning back to her untouched drink. She downed it before quickly leaving as well.

Their bedroom door was still locked when she returned to the castle but the noise inside had stopped. She plopped down onto the floor outside the door. She would wait.

Anna sat outside the bedroom all night. She didn't even realize morning had come till servants began to move through the corridors. They spared her pitying glances. No doubt someone had heard their argument and it had spread among them like wild fire.

She looked up when she heard the door unlock with a quiet click. It opened and Elsa looked down at her surprised.

She looked at the dark circles under tired teal eyes and knew without asking that Anna had been out there all night. She stepped back inside the room giving the knight room to come in. She stepped in and closed the door behind her.

"Anna…" She sighed as soon as the door was shut.

"I'm sorry. " She cut off anything else the queen was going to say. "I'm sorry for what I said last night. I didn't mean that and I should have never said it." She apologized contritely.

"I know you didn't, Anna." She said quietly.

"I'm sorry for not taking my promise to you more seriously, either. I should have." She sat on the bed looking miserable as she looked up at the blonde. Elsa walked over silently and sat next to the knight on the bed and took both her hands in hers.

"Yes, you should have, but I had time to think about it last night." She looked over at the knight. "Fighting is all you've ever trained to do. It's what your good at, but Anna, your body can't keep this up forever."

"I know. The spirit is willing but the flesh is spongy and bruised." She smirked. Elsa smiled. "As it is chances are you'll outlive me by at least…10 years. I should be trying to extend my time with you and Olaf as much as I can…not shortening it. " Elsa squeezed her hands, mirroring the way her heart clenched when the knight mentioned her death.

"I'm going to try. I will, but you have to be patient with me snowflake." She squeezed back.

"I've had years of practice." The queen replied, her frown twitching up into a smile but it quickly fell. "You're still going to fight this man Hans suggested to take your place in the tournament aren't you though?" She asked.

"Yes. He'll be here soon." She stood up. Elsa sighed. The knight leaned down and kissed the blondes forehead. "But win or lose, I'm not going to compete in the tournament this year." She promised.

"My body could use the break. Maybe we could do something together instead?" Her tone was hopeful.

"I can clear as many days as you want, darling."


	11. Children no more

Anna pulled her cloak tighter around her though it did little to fend of the bitter cold as snow continued to fall gently down around her. Frost gave a shake beside her, flinging off the snow that had started to pile up on his back.

Anna grinned and held up an arm to trying to block the barrage as he showered more snow down on her.

"Hey, hey. I don't need any more snow , thank you" She laughed at the blue winged lizard. He chirped in reply as they walked through the field back toward the castle stables.

The 32 year old knight spent more time patrolling in the town since her promise to take a step back from duties. It was simple, Elsa didn't mind her doing it and though at first it had been rather boring she started to enjoy it and some of her long time aches and pains had lessened or disappeared. Some.

She still snuck out occasionally...like she had today to check on some known bandit posts near the base of the North Mountain.

What her wife didn't know wouldn't hurt her...or herself for that matter.

With winter in full swing most of them had abandoned the mountain posts in favor of warmer hidey holes in town where the guard presence was heavier and they couldn't do much, but a walk/ride through the mountains in the snow with her oldest and scaliest friend was a good way to spend the afternoon as well. Whatever got her out of the castle and away from her wife.

Elsa had been barely bearable for the past couple of weeks. She was stressing herself out with wedding plans.

The 18 year old groom to be was of course no help at all. He was too busy being nervous.

Speaking of...

"Hey, Anna." Traveled across the snowy landscape. She glanced over and grinned at her brother in law as he met her at the stable entrance.

Looking at him now she still saw a kid but the 5 year old little boy that sat in her lap, clung to her leg or jumped into bed with her and Elsa 13 years ago was long gone. An albino with a mop of still shaggy colorless hair and sky blue eyes but that was all that had remained the same.

The ankle hugger of yesteryear was gone, replaced with a 6 foot tall and lanky man with a squared jaw and a slight stubble the same shade as the hair on his head. Elsa claimed he would fill out a little more like their father had when he was young, that was what her mother had claimed anyway.

He was dressed similarly to his sister in law. thick wool lined pants and tunic covered with a thick fur cloak and gloves, a sword in its scabbard dangled from his hip.

"Where are you off too?." She wondered aloud.

"Where have you been?" He asked in a deep voice, smirking and white brow raised challengingly Anna snorted but didn't ask again. They were often enough the keepers of each other's secrets. Mostly all from Elsa.

"So will we be like, double in laws since I married your sister and now you're marrying mine?" She laughed. The Prince rolled his eyes and wrapped an arm around the red heads shoulders.

"No, not super in laws or anything, just siblings." He gave the older woman a squeeze and kissed her head." Anna snorted and gave him a light shove.

"How is your sister doing since I left this morning?" She asked as they walked into the stables. Tulvir perking up immediately at his masters appearance. He gurgled and growled as Olaf walked over and rubbed the other albinos scaly head. Anna lead Frost into his pen and quickly removed his saddle and started rubbing down the scales on his back.

Olaf groaned.

"She's still stressing herself out over the wedding details, Emma has to make a quick trip home to get her dress so Gerda can hem it, but your mother is here to help stress her out now while we're gone.." he threw over his shoulder. with a grunt.

"Of course she is…" Anna sighed. Olaf shook his head.

"Please go do something, Anna. Elsa is about to have a stroke in there and i can't say anything because she's soon to be my mother-in-law." He hopped over the gate and pulled Tulvir's saddle off its hook.

"Maybe if you had a more active role in planning your own wedding she wouldn't be so stressed out." The knight frowned and stepped out of Frosts pen, closing the gate behind her.

"You know he's no good at these kind of things, Anna." They both looked up as a lithe fur cloaked figure walked through the stable doors, pulling back the hood revealing a thick head of strawberry blonde locks, a heavily freckled face, sparkling emerald eyes and a sweet dimpled smile. Olaf smiled dreamily.

"Don't defend him, Emma." The older redhead growled. "He could at least help rather than give my wife a breakdown." She folded her arms across her chest.

"What about her?" The Prince threw a hand in his fiancé's direction. Emma frowned and glared at him, fists on her hips.

"Because she's at least trying to keep mother at bay." The knight snorted.

"You just hide out here with Tulvir." Emma accused. Olaf held his hands up in defense, eyes sliding back and forth between his fiancé and sister in law.

"Okay, okay. When we get back Emma and I will take over for Elsa." He promised, hand resting over his heart. "Till then, why don't you go help her instead of looking for trouble around the mountain?" He lead Tulvir out of his pen and out into the field, Emma and Anna followed.

"I'm heading there now you brat." She growled standing toe to toe with him, head tipped back to look up at his smirking face.

He leaned over, accentuating their height difference.

"Then you better get going." He smirked. The stared off before Emma came shoving herself between them.

"As should we so we can get back and relieve my future sister-in-law." She pulled herself up onto Tulvir's back and looked down at Olaf expectantly.

"Move it, Snowman." She called. Anna snorted and Olaf flushed brightly before hauling himself up onto the dragons back and taking up the reins.

"We'll be back soon." Emma promised with a smile before pulling her hood back up and flipping Olaf's up back over his snowy colored head. He slapped the reins and with a mighty flap they lifted into the air, the wind sending the snow on the ground flying. Anna squinted into the snowy gusts, watching as they flew off back toward the Bjorgman estate.

Anna hummed to herself before turning and heading back toward the warm castle. At least with Elsa being stressed she hoped it was warm.

The guards and servants she passed in the halls greeted her with smiles and nods or calls of good day. She nodded and smiled in turn.

When she was outside her wives study she could hear her 51 year old mother going on a tangent about some kind of flower arrangement. Anna rolled her eyes before squareing her shoulders and throwing open the office door.

The older redhead stopped talking and turned to look at her daughter. Elsa looked over at her tired and curiously over her half rimmed reading glasses.

"Mother, if you wouldn't mind I need to talk to my wife in private right now." She announced. The other two woman blinked slowly before Madeline nodded and stood from her chair in front of the queens desk.

"Of course, honey. I'll go have some tea in the dining hall." She smiled before quickly curtsying to the monarch and exiting the study. Anna closed the door behind her and held out her arms.

"Your knight in shining armor has arrived, Snowflake." She declared making the curious looking queen smile adoringly and stood up as the redhead strutted up to her.

"And just in time." She smiled, wrapping her arms around the redheads neck and kissing her thankfully.

Anna grinned against the blondes lips before pulling back but wrapping her arms around the queens waist.

"That's my job. Save the queen." She gave a shrug before kissing the blonde again making her giggle.

"I ran into Olaf and Emma on my way to the stables." She said, leaning back to look into her wives blue eyes. Elsa nodded, extracting herself from the redhead's arms and walking back to her desk.

"Yes, her dress is a little long and Gerda offered to hem it. I can keep working while their doing that." She shuffled through a handful of papers, eyes now trained firmly back to the work before her.

"Is it wedding work?" The knight asked, eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Yes, that's all I've been doing." The queen bit back a tired sigh and didn't even look up at Anna as she flipped over a paper.

A hand slapped down onto the desk, covering the papers Elsa had been looking over. She jumped, head whipping up to her younger wife.

"Anna! What are you doing?" Pale brows furrowed.

"This needs to stop Elsa." The knights tone brooked for no arguments, but as her wife, Elsa would of course, argue.

"And what is it that needs to stop?" Elsa frowned looking up at the knight.

"You, doing all the work for this wedding. You're running yourself into the ground. You didn't even come to bed last night!" She threw her hands up.

Elsa sighed, pushing her glasses up and pinching the bridge of her nose tiredly.

"I know. Anna. I'm sorry, but there's still so much left to do and the wedding is only a couple days away." She reasoned. Anna frowned.

"Olaf is 18 and Emma is 19, between them and mother they should be able to plan their own wedding instead of making you do it all for them." She argued frowning.

"As I recall you didn't have any part in the planning of our wedding." She frowned, eyes narrowing at Anna.

"That was my wedding gift to you. You got to plan it all the exact way you wanted. I didn't care. I just wanted to marry you." She defended herself. "It wasn't near as stressful, you didn't have 3 other voices of opinions all contradicting each other and telling you what they wanted and how they wanted it." She placed both hands flat on the wood and leaned across the desk, coming nose to nose with her wife.

"I know…" She relented, letting out a long weary sigh and slumping back in her chair tiredly.

Anna realized then just how exhausted her wife was, Queen Elsa, the mistress of ice and snow did not. Slump.

"You're done." The knight declared.

Before Elsa could say anything she was being slung out of her chair and over her wives shoulder. She let out a startled squeal that made the knight snort. The queens glasses jostled, falling back crookedly on her nose.

"Anna!" She cried as the knight made her way out of the office and down the hall. Guard and servants peaked around the corners and down the hall as Anna carried the blonde over her shoulder back to their bedroom, Elsa wriggling violently in her arms the entire time, demanding the redhead put her down.

Anna managed to get the door open and once inside, kicked it closed behind her. She dropped Elsa unceremoniously onto their bed.

"Damnit, Anna!" The queen glared. Anna smirked. The queen was very unhappy, the slip of a curse was the telltale sign of her annoyance.

"No more work on the wedding, Elsa. I mean it. I already talked to Emma and Olaf. They're going to take over the remainder of the planning the moment they get back from getting her dress. You, are done." She said finitely.

Elsa pursed her lips but didn't argue with her redheaded wife.

"You need to relax and that's exactly what we're going to do. You change and I'll be right back." She quickly turned and left the room.

The queen briefly contemplated going back to her study and continuing to work but knew that doing so would infuriate the knight and earn her another embarrassing shoulder ride right back to their bedroom and a very unhappy redhead.

She breathed heavily through her nose and stood up from the bed and moving over to the wardrobe they shared and dug through it till she found an old worn piece of blue and silver trimmed fabric.

Anna's old tunic

Elsa rubbed her thumb over the smooth worn material. It had a few rips and holes in it so Anna had stopped wearing it some years before but the queen had had a near fit when she had tried to throw it away, so now it was solely the blondes' night ware. It was only late afternoon but she had the impression Anna wasn't going to be letting her leave their room for the remainder of the day.

With a wave of her hand her dress vanished just as their bedroom door opened she jumped but let out a relieved sigh as Anna closed the door behind her a bottle of clear liquid in one hands and two glasses in the other.

"Well, it's a little early, but if it'll make you relax I'm up for it." She smirked. Elsa rolled her eyes and pulled on the old worn garment.

"Oh yes, after you dragged me kicking and screaming down the hall in front of everyone I am so in the mood." She drawled, sarcasm dripping from every word. Anna smirked and shrugged.

"You were the one standing naked in the middle of our bedroom…you…were expecting me right?" She looked around the room suspiciously. The blonde rolled her eyes.

"What do have there?" She eyed the clear bottle warily.

"It's one of those bottles of Piscollian rum Alistair and Amelia sent us for our last anniversary." She grinned and held up bottle.

The queen scrunched up her face.

"Not that repugnant swill." She whined, plopping down onto the bed.

"You only say that because after a couple glasses of this you're sliding down the wall and shimmying out of your dress." She bit down on the cork and pulled it out of the bottle with loud pop and set the glasses down, filling them up with the powerful smelling clear liquid.

Elsa flushed but remembered well the last time they had dipped into the liquid. Anna's recount of the events was not….entirely inaccurate.

She blinked as a glass was held in front of her face.

"Come on. It'll be good for you." The knight wheedled. The queen sent her a disbelieving look but took the proffered glass anyway.

"Fine" She acquiesced taking a drink from the glass.

Anna grinned at the scrunched face the blonde made as she swallowed it before taking a large gulp herself.

"Ugh" She gasped as it burned like fire all the way down her throat, leaving a lasting heat in her gut.

"Hmm, like fire." She grinned tho it appeared more like a grimace. She looked over at Elsa sipping slightly on her own. "You know you're not going to be able to drink it like that, Snowflake." She reminded.

She paused a moment, sending the knight a look before tipping her head back and emptying the glass.

Anna chuckled when she coughed but laughed even harder when the queen just held her glass up for a refill.

3 more and an hour was all it took for the queen to relax. Laying limp in the knights arms, an empty glass barely in her loose grip.

"I just can't believe he's getting married…" She slurred, curling her fingers into the fabric of Anna's tunic.

Anna who had finished her glass had quit after the glass had emptied the first time.

"He's not little anymore." She agreed with a nod, running her fingers through the blonde's hair.

"Remember when he was little?" The queen asked drunkenly. Anna smirked, trying to hold in her laughter at the heavily slurred words.

"Yes, I remember, love." She snickered.

"He was so small and fragile…I wanted to protect him from everything…but now that's Emma's job." She sniffed. Anna paused, looking down at the blonde laying against her chest.

"Elsa…?" She asked quietly. The blonde sniffed, curling up farther into the knights side.

"He doesn't need me anymore." She hiccupped. Anna curled her arms tightly around her wives back.

"He doesn't need you as much as he did when he was a kid, but he's always going to want you around." She tried to assure her kissing the top of her wives head. Elsa shook her head and sniffed.

"No one needs me." She whimpered.

"I need you." She squeezed her drunk and emotional wife. Elsa hiccupped.

"You need a miracle." She mumbled. Anna grunted, a little offended but kept her mouth shut.

A knock on the door had her sliding out from under the emotional blonde, who flopped back onto the bed when Anna got up.

She opened the door to Olaf.

"Is Elsa in there with you, I need to ask her about this guest list. She used some kind of acronyms I don't understand." He held up a piece of paper.

"She is…but I don't think she's going to be much help to you or anyone." She took a step to the side reveling the sloshed queen.

"Olaf!" She slurred, pushing herself up from the bed.

"Is she..?" The prince started. Anna nodded with a smirk as Elsa climbed out of the bed, tripping over herself. "I've never seen her drunk…" He glanced at his sister in law.

Elsa threw herself into the Princes arms, squeezing him mercilessly, sniffling into his tunic.

"Um.." He blinked at Anna curiously.

"The drink has made her a little emotional and she thinks now that you're getting married no one needs her anymore." Anna explained, walking over to the table where she'd left the bottle to pour herself another drink.

"What?" He took hold of the queens upper arms, pushing her back so he could look at her. "I don't need you to look after me as much anymore, but I'll always want you around Elsa." He promised wiping away the stray tears on his sisters face.

"Really?" She sniffed again. The Prince chuckled.

"Yes. Really." He kissed her forehead. "Besides Someone has to take care of Anna still." He smiled.

"Okay, she's drunk, so I'll take it from her, but not from you." Anna turned around and growled at the prince.

"Let's just put her to bed." He chuckled.


End file.
